Hi everybody,
I am a peruvian girl married with a German guy and living in Munich since 5 months ago. I can not go to the University because my Abitur is not enough so,I have to go first to the StudienKolleg. But a friend told me that since I am married with a German and I have the permission to stay here. I can make an Ausbildung without StudienKolleg. What is that? Is it true? She said I only need to speak good German. If anybody knows something about that, I would really appreciate some information. Thank you so much in advance.
Maria :-)

Ausbildung is NOT an University education and it is done by the people who do not manage to go to University.(meaning people who dont have Abitur)

In Ausbilding, you learn a profession by doing it in a Company, some theory lessons are also given.
But after you finish the Ausbildung, the "certificate" you get is nothing comparable to an University degree.

These titles are quite important in Germany and the education system is quite complicated. For example, if you get an Engineer title from

-> an "Universität" which takes at least 5-6 years then you become "Diplom Ingenieur (Uni)", you can go for a PhD degree(Doktor titel), only if you have this title.

-> a Fachhochschule which takes aprx. 4-5 years(1 year at Industry) you become a "Diplom Ingenieur (FH)" and you can not go for PhD. You can not put "Uni" in your title. FH is FH.

-> a Berufsakademie which takes 3-4 years. You become "Diplom Ingenieur (BA)". This is worse than Uni and FH.

and the "Ausbildung" stuff does not fit to none of the above. It is not Universtiy education at all.

All these complicated titles are considered by German companies for identifying the salary categories etc for the fresh graduates.

You may go and figure out how american B.S.c and M.S.c degrees fit in this picture Germans also still discuss about it.. ;)

Regards,

Lacrima

Personally Maria, I would recommand you to do the Studienkolleg, it's only 1 year and it worths it.

@Lacrima, thanks for all the info, in fact, I never cared about all that because in my country, there's no 3 way to get a degree: only the University, all the others are just "title" but no concrete "degree".

back @Mary, the all depends on what you plan for your future, my wife too couldn't go to the Uni directly, just because she did one year at the Uni back in our contry but had to quit when she got pregnant, and she just did her Studienkolleg test last saturday (waiting for the results tomorrow) but it's because she want to go to the Uni and doesn't want to end up doing some Ausbildung.

I will encourage you to do the same, but it's all depending on you and on the time you wanna invest in that.

D.

Hi again,
I just wanted to thank you Lacrima for all the detail information you gave me, I didn´t know there was such a big differences, my husband had explained me before but not so good like you! Thanks!!! :-D
Also wanted to thank Nobody for the courage and the advice for going to StudienKolleg. I will do so because I will have more oportunities in jobs. Thank you and I wish your wife very good Luck in her exam for the StudienKolleg.
Have a nice day!!!
Maria :-)

@Maria
yeah, just as usual, my wife called me an hour ago craying on the phone and laughing at my voice 5 minutes later by telling that she got her place there, there was a whole bunch of people, but she did succed.
Now, the game starts on another level, it was just a battle won but not yet the war. Do it and you won't regret, be sure of that.
It's true that diplomas don't make a man, but in the society we live, better have a good diploma, sometimes, it's all they care about.

D.

Diploma does not make a man but it does make a man's future.

@DvD

not everytime and that's the point. In this society, surely.

D.