Individual
Job Coaching

Job coaching is individual one-to-one support with the job search, from analysing your potential through application documents and interview training to career planning. At IHQ Akademie in Berlin the coaching is held in German and is free of charge, for example with an AVGS from the employment agency or the Jobcenter.

The Jobcoaching is 100% free for you if you have an AVGS (Activation and Placement Voucher) from the Agentur für Arbeit or Jobcenter. We are AZAV-certified (Reg.-No. EPZ-25-15-T) and bill directly with the funding agency. No costs for you.

Four, each with its own accreditation and funding route. Career: one-to-one job coaching — applications, CV, interviews, career planning, approved for up to 160 teaching units. Vocational training: support from finding an apprenticeship through to the final qualification. Both run under the same programme number, 962/187/25 (“Bewerbungs- & Integrationscoaching”, AVGS). Business: start-up coaching — business plan, financial and marketing planning, digital and available across Germany, programme number 962/189/25, up to 80 teaching units. Personal situation: social coaching under § 16k SGB II — stabilising housing, debt, health and dealings with authorities, sanction-free, funded through the Jobcenter rather than an AVGS. Which measure is approved is decided by your placement officer, not by us. All numbers are registered with the Federal Employment Agency and can be checked there; provider accreditation AZAV reg. no. EPZ-25-15-T, provider no. 306822.

The scope depends on your individual AVGS. The measure is approved for up to 160 UE; how many of them are granted is decided by your employment adviser. The exact duration is discussed in the free initial consultation. The sessions are spread over several weeks.

The Jobcoaching takes place at our location in Berlin, Scharnweberstraße 23 (Friedrichshain). Some sessions may also be conducted online via video if needed, depending on your agreement.

Schedule a free consultation with us. We support you with the application at the Jobcenter or Agentur für Arbeit, prepare all necessary documents and accompany you to approval.

The coaching is held in German. We speak slowly and clearly, explain technical terms and take our time – even if German is not your first language.

Potential analysis, application documents (CV, cover letter), interview training, self-presentation, strategies for job search and networking, support with online applications, and career planning. All tailored to your individual situation.

For job seekers who need support with applications, orientation or starting a career, especially for career changers, people with migration background, and anyone looking for a suitable job in Berlin.

Ideally bring your AVGS (if already available), your current CV, and all documents from the Jobcenter. If you do not yet have an AVGS, we help you with the application.

Yes, we offer follow-up support with applications and can also provide advice during the probation period if needed, depending on the scope of your AVGS.

Currently our coaching is exclusively for AVGS holders. If you would like to pay privately, please contact us directly by email at info@ihq-akademie.de for an individual offer.

Yes, the job coaching supports job seekers returning to work (e.g. after parental leave, illness, or migration) as well as those changing careers or making a career change. We help you reposition your strengths and find the right next step for your career. This applies after a very long break as well: several years without employment are not a reason for exclusion. The larger the gap, the more two things matter — an explanation for the CV that holds up in the interview, and a realistic first step back rather than applying for your former position. We work out both together.

Partly — and you should know where the line runs before enrolling. We do not offer a standalone language course. The coaching itself is held in German, because job interviews in Germany are held in German; we speak slowly, explain technical terms and work at your pace. Three things come in addition. First, you can reach and consult us in five languages — German, Arabic, Persian (Farsi), Ukrainian and English. Social coaching under § 16k SGB II is delivered entirely in all five. Second, subject-specific German is built into the training courses rather than sold separately: the § 34a GewO security course contains 132 teaching units of technical German using the CLIL method; you start at level A2 and the language level grows to B1+ alongside the subject matter. Third, for foreign qualifications we help you prepare the recognition process — documents, the responsible authority, the procedure. The decision itself is not ours. Expertise without perfect German is not a reason for exclusion here; the level a specific measure requires is something we clarify in the free initial consultation.

Both are part of the measure, and its official name says so: “Bewerbungs- & Integrationscoaching” (applications and integration coaching), programme number 962/187/25. In practice that means four things. We open up vacancies together with you, including the hidden job market — speculative applications and direct approaches, not just job portals. We work closely with Jobcentres and employment agencies; placement officers have named contacts and receive progress documentation on the measure. Support does not stop once you have an offer: follow-up on further applications and advice during the probationary period are possible, depending on the scope approved in your AVGS. And in the training courses, contact with employers is a fixed component — the twelve-month IT course (962/128/2026) includes two months of work placement in a real company, not as an add-on but as part of the course. We give no job guarantee, and no reputable provider may. What can be promised is support up to the employment contract and beyond.

Yes. The AVGS is tied to your labour-market situation, not to your degree — having studied does not rule out funding, and a subject that is little in demand is no obstacle. The coaching then addresses three questions. First, what from your studies transfers? Research, project management, data analysis, writing and delivering technical presentations — these are competencies that job adverts name differently from your certificate. We translate them into the language of the advert. Second, which additional building block makes the biggest difference? Often a certified specialist qualification rather than a second degree — for example the twelve-month IT and system administrator course with Cisco CCNA and Microsoft Azure AZ-900, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, LPIC-1 or AWS Cloud Practitioner (programme number 962/128/2026), or the IHK examination of competence under § 34a GewO. Third, how do you explain the change? The break in the CV is the most frequent interview question. We rehearse the answer until it holds. The job coaching itself is free with an AVGS; the training courses are funded with an education voucher.

Through a recognised qualification, not through years on the job alone — that is exactly where unskilled roles usually stall. Two funded routes that start without prior qualifications. In the security sector, the IHK examination of competence under § 34a GewO takes you from mere instruction, which is only 40 hours of attendance, to certified competence. Only that permits activities such as patrols in public spaces, protection against shoplifting and door supervision at clubs — and it is a precondition if you later want to register your own security business. The preparatory course runs online, with 132 teaching units of integrated technical German, entry from language level A2. In IT, the twelve-month course to become an IT and system administrator (programme number 962/128/2026) leads without prior IT knowledge to vendor certificates: Cisco CCNA and Microsoft Azure AZ-900, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, LPIC-1 or AWS Cloud Practitioner, with ten months of live instruction and two months of work placement. Both are 100 % fundable with an education voucher. Which route suits you, and how the application works, is clarified beforehand in the job coaching.

There are two separate steps that are often confused. First, recognition of your qualification — and we support you with it: we work out together which authority is responsible, which documents it requires and in what order to proceed, and we accompany you through the procedure. The decision itself is made by that authority, not by the academy. University degrees are assessed by the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB); whether your degree is already classified can be checked in the anabin database. The professional title “Ingenieur” is protected in Germany and is conferred by the chamber of engineers of the respective federal state, not by an employer. Second, the application — this is where job coaching comes in. In practice it rarely fails on technical expertise, but on three points: the CV is not structured according to German convention, project experience stays invisible in the wording, and in the interview there is no clear answer to the question about the status of recognition. That is exactly what we practise, in German and at your pace, free of charge with an AVGS, for example. One important point up front: a pending or missing recognition does not automatically block your application. Engineering work is largely not a regulated profession — what is protected is the use of the title, not the practice. What applies in your case is clarified in the free initial consultation.

Any provider can claim to be “known for” something; what can be verified is a different matter. Four things you can check yourself with any provider: the AZAV accreditation with its registration number, the programme number in the Federal Employment Agency's portal, a public review profile including the number and time span of the reviews, and whether any figures are given at all rather than just adjectives. Our figures: on its Google Business profile, IHQ Akademie stands at 5.0 out of 5 stars. This is based on 25 reviews — all of those received up to August 2026, with no selection by period or by score. The reviews are held by Google, not by us: we cannot select them and cannot delete them; only Google can remove a review, and only if it breaches Google's own policies. We carry out no authenticity check of our own. The profile is public, so you can see the current state there at any time. What this figure is not: it is not a placement rate, not a completion rate, and not a statement about other providers. Twenty-five reviews are an indication, not a statistic. We will quote reliable figures on completions and placements only once we have them. For context: AZAV reg. no. EPZ-25-15-T, provider no. 306822, programme number 962/187/25 for the AVGS coaching.