Ausbildung in Germany: Official Websites and Agency Red Flags

If you searched for an official Ausbildung website in Germany, there is no single one. Training vacancies sit on several services, some run by federal bodies, some by the chambers that register training contracts, and many by private companies whose pages rank well and look similar.

This guide names the services, says who publishes each one, and gives you the fee, document and certificate rules that a paid agency has to follow. Explaining who publishes a site matters more than a list of links, because it is the check you can repeat on any site you find later.

The four job boards the federal guide names

The Federal Government’s guide to finding vocational training names four job boards. All four are free for applicants.

Ausbildungssuche, from the Federal Employment Agency

The Bundesagentur für Arbeit is Germany’s federal employment agency. Its Ausbildungssuche searches training places by occupation and location, and it covers school-based programmes and preparation courses as well as dual training with a company.

The interface is German only. Search with the German occupation title, which you can find on an occupation profile before you start.

Job listings on Make it in Germany

Make it in Germany is the Federal Government’s information portal for skilled workers from abroad, and its job board has a filter for apprenticeships. It works in English.

It is also the clearest example of the publisher check described further down. The portal’s legal notice names the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, as the body providing the service.

Meine Ausbildung in Deutschland, from the IHK organisation

The Chambers of Industry and Commerce, in German the Industrie- und Handelskammern or IHK, register training contracts for commercial, industrial and technical occupations. Their vacancy board is Meine Ausbildung in Deutschland, published by IHK Gesellschaft für Digitalisierung mbH according to its imprint. It is in German.

That imprint also says the adverts come from company websites or are entered by the companies themselves, and that the board gives no guarantee of their accuracy or currency. Treat a listing as a lead, then confirm the deadline and requirements with the employer.

Lehrstellenradar, from the chambers of skilled crafts

Lehrstellenradar covers training and internship places in over 130 skilled-crafts occupations, the trades side of the dual system. Its about page says ODAV AG built it on behalf of the German Handwerkskammern, the chambers of skilled crafts, through their joint initiative handwerkskammer.de, and that content questions go to the regionally responsible chamber. It is in German.

Add company career pages to these four. A large employer often publishes its training places on its own site first, with the deadline and the exact documents it wants.

The English pages that explain the rules

Three of the four services above are search tools with nothing attached that explains the rules. These pages do that, in English.

The Federal Employment Agency publishes an English page on vocational training in Germany that sets out the structure, the usual duration, the language expectation and the visa conditions in five steps. It also states plainly that all services provided by the agency are free of charge.

If you live outside Germany, its advice and support page is the entry point to that free help. Staff can discuss whether you meet the requirements, where to have foreign certificates recognised, and which documents your application and visa need. The same page describes the agency’s fair migration principle, under which the employer rather than the applicant carries placement costs.

For occupation content in English, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training publishes a section on recognised training occupations and their training regulations, including the register of occupations that count as recognised at all.

One redirect catches people out, because older guides still recommend the old address. Planet-beruf.de now sends you to the Federal Employment Agency’s careers portal at arbeitsagentur.de/bildung, presented as meinBERUF, which holds the orientation tools including Check-U. It is German only. The redirect is normal, not a sign that something has gone wrong.

Where the official decision is actually made

No job board grants anything. If you need a visa for vocational training, the Federal Foreign Office’s Consular Services Portal is where the application is made, either online or at the German mission responsible for you. Its vocational-training page also explains that approval from the Federal Employment Agency is generally needed for in-company training and is obtained inside the visa procedure, so it is not something you arrange separately.

The federal vocational-training visa page gives the same route in guidance form, with the current document and financial conditions. Read that before anyone quotes you a price for handling it.

How to check whether a site is official

German websites have to publish an imprint, usually labelled Impressum or “Legal Notice” in the footer. That is the fastest test you can run yourself.

1. Open the imprint and read which organisation is named as responsible. A ministry, a federal agency or a chamber organisation is a different thing from a private company, and the imprint says which one it is.
2. Check that the named body is one you can find independently, rather than a name you have only seen on that site.
3. Note who runs the site on someone’s behalf. Lehrstellenradar is built by a private IT company for the chambers of skilled crafts, and its about page says so. That arrangement is normal and it is documented.
4. Treat the surface signals as proof of nothing. A .de domain, a German flag, an official-sounding name, the word “official” in a page title and a well-designed site are all available to anyone.

One case is worth stating outright, because the federal portal states it itself. Make it in Germany says that it does not provide placement services, and that private recruiters offering paid services under that name are not offering the Federal Government’s portal.

What a paid agency may charge, and what it may not

Private placement agencies are legal in Germany, and using one is a decision you are allowed to make. The federal page on placement agencies is the one to read first, because it says something most agency websites will not: there is no special certification or licensing requirement for private placement agencies in Germany. A company existing, looking professional and quoting German law does not mean anyone has checked it.

The limits come from the German Social Code. The federal page summarises them, and the links below go to the statute text itself.

Training placement is paid for by the employer. For finding you a training place, an agency may demand or accept a fee only from the employer. The rule covers everything needed to prepare and carry out that placement, including assessing the applicant’s knowledge and the careers advice that goes with it. So a fee charged to you for finding an Ausbildung place conflicts with the rule, whatever the invoice calls it.

A job placement needs a written contract, and no money up front. A placement contract with a jobseeker has to be in writing and name the fee. You owe that fee only if an employment contract actually came about through the placement, and the agent may not demand or accept advance payments. The fee including value-added tax may not exceed 2,000 euros for a simple placement, subject to the exceptions the law lists.

Cross-border placement means ten facts in writing before you sign. When the placement crosses a border, the agent has to inform you in writing, at the agent’s own cost, in your language or a language you understand, before the employment contract is concluded. The list covers the employer’s name and address, the start and duration, the place of work, the work itself, working time, pay including deductions, holiday, notice periods, the applicable collective agreements, and how to reach advisory services.

Services other than placement, such as a language course, a translation or document preparation, are separate and can be charged for. That is why the written description of what you are buying matters more than the total price.

Red flags in a specific offer

Each item below names the conduct and the rule or official statement it conflicts with. Treat any one of them as a reason to stop and get free advice before you pay, sign or send documents.

1. A fee for finding you an Ausbildung place. Only the employer may be charged for training placement.
2. Payment before anything happens. An agent may not demand or accept advance payments, and the fee is owed only if a contract actually resulted.
3. A promised or guaranteed visa. Make it in Germany states that private agencies cannot guarantee or promise a visa, because each application is decided case by case and the agency has no control over it.
4. A request to hold your passport or original certificates. The same federal page says a placement agency is not allowed to keep them, and that only competent authorities may retain your documents. Send copies.
5. A language certificate from a school nobody names. The Federal Foreign Office lists which language certificates are accepted in the visa procedure. The page is in German, and it says only exams meeting Association of Language Testers in Europe standards count, currently naming the Goethe-Institut, telc, the Österreichisches Sprachdiplom, TestDaF from level B2, ECL and the Deutsches Sprachdiplom. Certificates from other schools are not recognisable for the visa, even where the school may run integration courses, and the exam date should normally be less than a year old.
6. A contract you cannot read, or no written contract at all. The law requires written form, and information in a language you understand, before you commit.
7. A long tie-in or a repayment clause you were not shown. The federal placement page warns that some contracts require you to stay with the employer for up to three years, and that leaving early can trigger repayment of costs running into thousands of euros, along with contractual penalties.
8. An offer you cannot confirm with the employer. The ten points you must be given in writing include the employer’s name and address, so you should be able to contact the company yourself and check that the position and the terms are real.
9. A charge for something the state provides free. The Federal Employment Agency states that all of its services are free of charge, and the four job boards above cost applicants nothing.

None of this means every agency is dishonest. It means the answer to “is this one all right?” comes from the written contract and these rules, not from how convincing the conversation was.

Free help you already have a right to use

Before paying anyone, use the services that already exist for you.

• The Federal Employment Agency advises people living outside Germany on requirements, recognition, the job search and application documents, free of charge, through its advice and support page.
• Make it in Germany runs an email, hotline and chat service for questions about jobs, visas, recognition and learning German.
• The local IHK and chambers of skilled crafts advise on training in their own occupations, which is also where a listing’s content questions belong.
• Once you are in Germany, Faire Integration gives free advice in several languages on employment and social-security questions, including problems with an agency or a contract.

Your next step

Open the Ausbildungssuche and one chamber board, search the same occupation on both, and note which employers appear on only one of them. That tells you quickly whether one board is enough for your field.

Record which service each application came from. The Ausbildung application tracker keeps that beside the dates for each place, and repeats the placement-fee rule on any record you mark as coming through a paid agency. Your records stay in your browser.

If an agency has already contacted you, ask for the written placement contract and those ten written points before any payment, then check the offer against the nine points above. If something does not match, take the contract to the free advice service rather than to the agency that wrote it.

For the route around this decision, use the step-by-step Ausbildung guide for the full sequence, the application timeline for when to search and apply, and the Ausbildung preparation self-check to turn your notes into an ordered list of checks. Your answers there stay in the browser, and it gives no score or eligibility decision.