What is an AZAV-certified program?
In short: the key that unlocks publicly funded training in Germany. As a provider that has passed the AZAV certification audit, we make digital skills training (AI, social media, modern workflows) funding-eligible for your team, often covered up to 100% by public funds. If you want the full picture, every detail is here, including the original legal text.
Quality the German state recognizes.
AZAV isn't a seal you can award yourself. It's an audited framework, and the precondition for training to be eligible for public funding in Germany.
An audited standard
AZAV stands for Germany's "Akkreditierungs- und Zulassungsverordnung Arbeitsförderung," the state-recognized quality framework for publicly funded professional training.
Verified by a certification body
An approved, independent certification body audits both the provider and the program: concept, curriculum, qualifications, and processes. Only then does a program become funding-eligible.
What this means for you
Certified training can be financed through public funds, up to 100% for many participants. Instead of paying agency rates, you get funded expertise built into your own team.
Not a marketing badge. An audited quality guarantee that the German government co-funds.
German Social Code § 82, explained simply.
What the law covers for your team.
Germany's Qualifizierungschancengesetz (Skills Development Opportunities Act) funds upskilling for existing employees, regardless of age, qualification, or company size. We check exactly what applies to your team in the funding check.
Up to 100% of course costs
Depending on company size, the Federal Employment Agency covers part or all of the cost of certified training for your existing team.
Up to 75% wage subsidy
During the training period, there's also a subsidy toward your employees' salary, likewise scaled by company size.
You apply as the employer
Your employees don't have to deal with the job center: you, as the employer, submit the application to the Federal Employment Agency, and we help you prepare it.
What's available by company size.
Reference values under § 82 of the German Social Code III; the funding check clarifies exactly what applies to you.
Four steps to certification.
From the first check to the recognized certificate: we guide every step so the funding lands correctly.
Funding Check
We determine, for free, whether and how QCG funding applies to your team, and which topics make sense.
Consulting & Application
We manage communication with the Federal Employment Agency and prepare all the documents your application needs, cleanly, as the employer.
Training
Hands-on, online, and alongside your job. Real projects instead of theory. Your team works on what actually matters afterward.
Certificate & Transfer
You end up with a recognized certificate, and a team that carries content, AI, and digital workflows forward on its own.
Skills that matter tomorrow.
No dry theory: we train in exactly the fields we work in ourselves, every day.
Tools, prompts, and automation that save real time.
Reels, hooks, content calendars: building reach systematically.
From idea to finished clip: script, filming, editing, captions.
Modern communication, lead processes, and tools that scale.
Live sessions with the team instead of solo video courses: knowledge stays in-house.
Verifiable qualification on completion, audited under AZAV.
The legal text, unabridged.
No summary, no marketing spin: the wording from Book III of the German Social Code (SGB III), as published on gesetze-im-internet.de (unofficial translation for reference).
§ 176 (1-2) SGB III, Principle of Approval
„Providers require approval from a certification body to independently conduct or arrange labor-promotion measures. Employers who conduct only in-house measures, or in-house portions of measures, do not require approval. Vocational training measures under §§ 81 and 82 require approval under §§ 179 and 180."
This is the core requirement: without this approval, a provider cannot deliver publicly funded training at all. This exact approval is what we've obtained from GZQ, our certification body.
§ 179 (1) SGB III, Approval of the Measure
„A measure must be approved by the certification body if its content design, delivery methods and materials, and organizational structure suggest successful participation, if it is appropriate given labor market conditions, offers reasonable participation terms, and if the facilities, staffing, and technical setup ensure proper delivery, and if it is planned and carried out according to principles of efficiency and cost-effectiveness."
That's why the certification body doesn't just audit us as a provider, it audits every individual program: curriculum, facilities, cost, and instructors included.
§ 82 (1) SGB III, Funding for Employed Workers (Skills Development Opportunities Act)
„Employees may receive funding for vocational training within an existing employment relationship, through full or partial coverage of training costs, if the training conveys skills, knowledge, and abilities beyond short-term, purely job-specific adjustment training; if the qualifying degree was generally obtained at least two years earlier; if the measure lasts more than 120 hours; and if both the measure and its provider are approved for funding."
This is the legal basis for the funding check: these are exactly the requirements we verify there for your team.
What the law actually says.
Honest, not sugarcoated, and without the legal jargon.
Not legally required, the application can be submitted directly. Since it's a discretionary benefit, the agency often recommends a conversation with its employer service in practice. How strictly that's handled varies by local agency.
No. The application must be submitted before the course starts; retroactive funding is not possible. That's why we plan for at least 6 weeks of lead time.
Employees in permanent, social-insurance-liable employment (not mini-jobbers or freelancers) whose qualifying degree is at least 2 years old and who haven't received other §82 funding in the past 2 years.
You never incur any costs, not even after an approval. That's our own contractual guarantee, built directly into the course agreement.
"Funding isn't paperwork, it's an opportunity: invest correctly once, and the knowledge stays in your team, not with an agency."
Get your funding checked.
In a short, free funding check, we'll determine which funding pathway applies to you or your team, with no obligation and no fluff.