School leaving certificate/professional basic education

A school-leaving qualification is an important prerequisite for participation in social life and entry into the labor market. There are the following options for obtaining a school-leaving certificate and/or at least catching up on basic vocational training in Thuringia.

Persons up to the age of 18 and less than 10 proven years of school attendance are required to attend school in Thuringia (ten-year full-time compulsory education). These young people can be educated at a general education school or a vocational school in order to fulfill their compulsory education.

At vocational schools, students can take part in a vocational preparation year (BVJ) to obtain a qualification equivalent to a secondary school leaving certificate. Depending on the language level and individual technical support needs, students can also attend special support classes before the BVJ (Vorklasse, BVJ Sprache). It is also possible to attend the BVJ-S and BVJ after completing compulsory full-time schooling.

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who are no longer subject to compulsory schooling and who do not have sufficient language and technical skills to obtain a school-leaving certificate or take up vocational training can be supported via the state program Start Bildung. Information on the Start Bildung state program can be found here: https://www.vhs-th.de/der-projektbereich-des-tvv-ev/start-bildung

The goal of the Start Bildung qualification is the transition to a BVJ (or BVJ-S) or to vocational preparation training measures of the Employment Agency (BvB), in which a qualification equivalent to the secondary school leaving certificate can be acquired.