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Career Paths in German as a Foreign Language

Language learning, language teaching – neither should be taken lightly. While learning your native language may have seemed like an “organic” process, once you start school, you realize that expanding and developing your vocabulary, language skills, and language competence is by no means an “organic” process. On my end, I need motivation and analytical skills and, at the other end, smart, experienced people who can fuel my motivation and reinforce my skills. This is all the more true when it comes to learning a foreign language, with the added challenge that the new analytical skills that need to be developed no longer have to do with the native language.

This results in the following eight career paths:

Research and Teaching
Communications
Education
Consulting
Management
Organization and Administration
Service Provision
International Affairs

While German Studies in general provide the best foundation for teaching the German language, and schoolteacher training pushes the methodology and didactics of teaching to the highest level, a very specific expertise has developed in the field of teaching German as a “foreign” language. Graduates from this field can pursue most of the paths outlined in German Studies, Linguistics, and Literary Studies, but they also have special access to international, intercultural, sociocultural, and even psychosocial fields. Migration, refugees, and integration are their domain.

The current demand for professionals with background German as a Foreign Language is so great that, in most cases, “only” a specialization and certified proof of qualification are required for career entry. The best further training you can pursue here is your own international experience, the development of intercultural skills, and learning additional foreign languages, possibly oriented toward the countries of origin of the people who want to learn German here with us.

This information is based on information provided by the BERUFENET of the German Federal Employment Agency and surveys conducted with graduates of Marburg University. We would like to thank Edgar Losse from the Marburg branch of the Federal Employment Agency for the suggestions and support.