Allgemeine Berufsvorbereitung (General Professional Skills)
Information on General Professional Skills Courses
(Studienbereich Allgemeine Berufsvorbereitung, abbreviated ABV)
Please read before making an appointment!
Who is the right contact person?
What do I get recognition and credits for?
How does the recognition procedure work?
Overview
During your BA studies at Freie Universität Berlin you have to earn 180 credits: 150 Credits in your field of study (or the core subject and separate modules) and 30 credits earned in general professional skills (ABV).
ABV courses include a mandatory professional internship (in Germany or abroad; before or during your studies) and six specific skill areas with seminars that you can do in addition (you can also complete the module entirely via internships).
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Mandatory professional internship (min. 5 credits needed, max. 30 credits possible) |
Skill area courses (min. 0 credits needed, max. 15 credits possible; each course is worth 5 credits) |
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Internship in Germany 5 credits = 120 hours (approx. 3 weeks) 10 credits= 240 hours (approx. 6 weeks) 15 credits = 360 hours (approx. 9 weeks) |
Skill areas
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Internship abroad 20 credits = 480 hours (approx. 12 weeks) 25 credits = 600 hours (approx. 15 weeks) 30 credits = 720 hours (approx. 18 weeks) |
Who is the right contact person?
- If you do an internship during your studies (in Germany or abroad), you do not need recognition from the JFKI. You only have to participate in the Colloquium and write an internship report, which you submit to the Career Service (Christiane Berwid-Kawell), see procedure below.
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In order to get recognition of credits for internships you did prior to your studies (in Germany or abroad), please contact the ABV contact person at the JFKI. To get recognition for internships you did prior to your studies you do not need to contact the Career Service, attend a colloquium, or write an internship report. You will get your credits through recognition from David Bosold, the ABV contact person at the JFKI.
Please bring the following documents:
a) recognition form (Anerkennungsbogen). (Please fill out part [1] as well as your study regulation in part [3]).
b) Confirmation of internship by your employer, which indicates (1) that you did the internship, (2) what you did during your internship, and (3) the duration of your internship (the confirmation should indicate the total of hours you worked there, not only the time period). Your employer can also fill out a one-page “Letter of confirmation for a student internship/ traineeship” that contains all information needed (either in German or English). - You find all ABV courses in the course catalog. If you want a different seminar to be recognized as an ABV-course, please contact the respective skill area (see list of contact persons above). Keep in mind that the seminar needs have strong overlaps with the ABV-courses offered in the skill area, to be get you ABV credits.
- If you need a confirmation for your employer prior to your internship, which confirms that your internship is mandatory, please make an appointment with the ABV coordinator at the JFKI to fill out this form.
What do I get recognition and credits for?
- All internships need to be at least 120 hours (ca. 3 weeks) in total to get recognition.
- Aupair, civil service, and Work & Travel are worth a maximum of 5 Credits.
- Work experience is worth a maximum of 15 Credits (depending on the duration).
- Volunteer work in the area of refugee relief can also count as an ABV-internship. For more information, please click here.
- You may combine different internships and ABV courses to obtain 30 credits in ABV: For instance au pair (5 credits) + internship in Germany of 240 hours (10 credits) + 3 ABV courses (5 credits each) = 30 Credits.
You may also combine internships in Germany and abroad. For two internships in Germany, or an internship in Germany plus and internship abroad, you can get maxup to 15 Credits. For severalinternships abroad, you can get up to 30 Credits. Work experience au pair civil service etc. counts in the „intership“ column (see above). This means if you combine internships, work experience, or au pair and any of these took place in Germany you can only get a max of 15 credits and have to do the remaining 15 credits in ABV courses. If everything took place abroad you can combine them up to 30 credits.
If you combine several internships, you still only need to attend only one Colloquium and you still need to write only one report. You are not allowed to register for several internship modules on Campus Management at the same time. So if you, for instance, do a three-week internship first (5 credits) and you later you do a six-week internship (10 credits), you need to register for the 15 Credit module and attend 1 Colloquium (see “How does the recognition procedure work?” below).
How does the recognition procedure work?
The procedure to obtain your credits for internships DURING your studies is as follows:
- Do Internship
In case you are unsure whether your internship is in line with the subject requirements of your study major, you can also write an email to the ABV contact person at the JFKI. We suggest you come to us if your internship seems quite far away from your field of study. She can send a confirmation email („Bestätigung der Anerkennungswürdigkeit“) to the Careerservice.
- Enroll on Campus Management for
a) “Berufsbezogenes Praktikum” or “Auslandspraktikum” A, B, C depending on the duration of all your internships (see table above you also find details here). It is important that you attend the colloquium that represents the entire (combined) duration of your internship(s). Meaning if you combine three shorter internships of five credits (5+5+5 credits) you need to do the 15 credit Colloquium (“Berufsbezogenes Praktikum C”). Some colloquia are in English (see Vorlesungsverzeichnis, ABV).
b) Attend the Colloquium.
- Write internship report (you find details here).
- Submit your internship report to the Careerservice per E-mail and make an appointment with the Careerservice. Bring your recognition, if you did the internship before your studies. The Careerservice will register that you completed your ABV internship modul in Campus Management (this can take up to a few weeks).
If you understand German, you also find a short video explaining this procedure here.
