Several people have been asking about looking for jobs in Germany with a Kenyan Diploma/Certificate.
For a long time many of us have passed on this myth on how advanced our education system is and even surpasses degrees in most countries. Well, I’m not saying our education system isn’t good, far from it but pretending a Kenyan KCSE Cert equates or even beats a degree in some countries would be a lie.In Germany, depending on your KCSE grade your certificate can equate to anything from a Hauptschulabschluss to an Abi (Read German Education system simplified).
The German system recently (2006) changed from the Diplom-Magister system to a Bachelor-Masters system. In a simplified form, after the Abi, you join Uni get a Bachelor then a Masters. In Kenya after KCSE, you join Uni and the same thing.
With a Kenyan Diploma (which is not equivalent to a German Diplom), this can allow you join Uni directly without having to do Studienkolleg. The Kenyan Diploma can be used to “upgrade” your KCSE Cert to an Abi. If you had an A in KCSE, then your cert is already an Abi and the Diploma won’t do much. If your KCSE certificate is translated to an equivalent of a Hauptschulabschluss or Realschulabschluss (Read Schulische ZeugnisAnerkennung – where to get your KCSE certificate converted to a German equivalent), then a Diploma from Kenya can help your qualification be upgraded.
Now when you try to find a job in Germany with a Diploma, then you can easily get lost as you’re termed “unqualified”. Though you might argue that a Diploma could be equivalent to an Ausbildung, it isn’t in most cases, in some maybe but not in most. In Germany when you introduce a qualification that doesn’t “fit” into what they already have, then they simply term it “impossible” (Read German Credential Maze).
IMHO, I think a Kenyan Diploma is a great credential to have in the CV as an extra curricular but not as the main credential. Even the foreign nurses being imported to Germany, need to have a degree yet the nurses here only need an Ausbildung to get a job. If you plan to move to Germany especially for a job, best advice is to get at least one degree.
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