Educational Grant (BAföG)
The Federal Education and Trainings Assistance Act regulates the federal assistance of the vocations of pupils and students. For one thing, the vocational subsidy is meant to enable equally of chances, and on the other hand give socially weaker citizens a chance to get a vocational qualification.
Educational support is granted for apprentices who generally at the start of the vocational training are not older than 30 years old. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, apprentices who because of family reasons were not able to begin the vocation. Additional exemptions are made for students. Further information is available here.
According to the educational grant (BAföG), the attendance of the following schools and institutions can be promoted:
- mainstream schools from the 10th grade (Pupil BAföG)
- vocational schools (Pupil BAföG)
- specialised secondary classes (Pupil BAföG)
- evening secondary school, vocational school, evening middle school, evening high school and colleges (Pupil BAföG)
- academies and Universities (study BAföG or study loan)
- new: private vocational academies (study BAföG or study loan)
Apprenticeships within the dual system cannot be promoted according the BAföG. Training support grant (BAB) can be applied for under certain conditions.
The amount of the grant depends on the type of the training facility and housing.
With an online calculator you can determine the amount of the grant by yourself. You can use this link for the online calculator.
BAföG is not only available for German citizens but also for citizens coming from the European union, migrants and refugees, who live in Germany. BAföG can be granted as a financial aid during studying or schooling. A basic rule is: If foreigners have a good perspective of staying in Germany and are socially integrated, they are seen as being eligible for aid.
The receiving of BAföG depends on the residency status of a refugee.
Accepted refugees (accepted and entitled for asylum, refugees whose status has been approved, respectively refugees who have subsidiary protection) can, no matter how long they already are in Germany, apply for BAföG.
Tolerated migrants and holders of certain humanitarian resident permits are also entitled if they are already in Germany for 15 months (compare §8 BAföG, section 2.2 and section 2a).
General information concerning the topic BAföG can be found on the website from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Down below you can find overviews concerning the access for educational promotion of refugees, citizens from the EU and from non-member countries, put together by the specialist unit Immigration of the promotional program „Integration by qualification (IQ)“.
- PDF-Datei: (PDF, 1 MB)
- PDF-Datei: (PDF, 688 kB)
- PDF-Datei: (PDF, 396 kB)