New Opportunities for International Teachers
They have had an intense year, and now it’s time to celebrate: 30 graduates of the LehrkräftePLUS training program received their certificates. This recognition honors not only their achievements but also their personal commitment to moving closer to their professional goals. They had previously worked as teachers in Ukraine, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Belarus, India, and Iran. Now they hope to do the same in Germany.
LehrkräftePLUS Siegen has been offered since 2020 at the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (ZLB) at the University of Siegen. The one-year continuing education program enhances the linguistic, subject-specific, and pedagogical-didactic competencies of immigrant teachers for work in German schools.
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Roos, director of the ZLB, congratulated the graduates: “This certificate represents an important step on your path back to the teaching profession. You’ve already brought so much with you—your experiences, your knowledge, and your skills. Now you have expanded on these foundations so that you can apply them in a new school system.”
Dr. Inga Schmalenbach, the program coordinator in Siegen, illustrated just how challenging this journey was with some figures: The 30 participants were selected from 122 applications. They completed 516 hours of German language instruction and exam preparation, as well as 232 hours of teaching practicum at schools. They invested many more hours in handwriting their 69-page internship logbook. Inga Schmalenbach was particularly impressed by the extraordinary camaraderie and mutual support within the group. Her conclusion: “You can happily and proudly say: We did it.”
It was also clear at the celebration that the group had grown closer not only professionally but also personally. The graduates expressed their gratitude with a program they had put together themselves and a song they sang together, which one of the participants had composed. The performance provided some moving moments and a few tears of joy—even among those who had accompanied the group for over a year.
Vice Rector Dr. Barbara Müller-Naendrup also offered her congratulations and thanked the faculty, the ZLB team, the participating schools, and the Arnsberg District Government, whose support made the training program possible. NRW Minister of Education Ina Brandes praised the program in a video message as a flagship project with exceptional impact. Britta Bollmann from the NRW Ministry of Culture and Science was visibly impressed by the participants’ dedication during her visit. “You are transforming from teachers back into learners because there is nothing more rewarding for you than passing on knowledge to young people and teaching them,” she said.
Participants in the LehrkräftePLUS program teach subjects such as biology, chemistry, English, art, mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering, music, and physical education. At the graduation ceremony, they themselves made it clear that returning to the profession is not just about subject knowledge and language skills. The nuances of everyday life in German schools also need to be learned. LehrkräftePLUS has built a bridge back to their profession for them. The certificate is an important step, but the journey is not yet over.
Successful completion of the program enables participants to join the follow-up program “Supporting International Teachers” (ILF) run by the Arnsberg District Government, which opens up further opportunities for working in the North Rhine-Westphalian school system. Since 2020, the LehrkräftePLUS program has been funded as a flagship project under “NRWege ins Studium” with 250,000 euros annually. Funding is projected to continue through 2028.
