Procedure

If you are a national of a member state of theEuropean Economic Area and you are a fully qualified teacher in a member state, you can apply for professional recognition.

 

How does the procedure work?

Recognition requires the examination of a file in order to establish whether your qualifications can be transposed into our system of titles and functions specific to teaching in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.  

The procedure therefore requires that we have a certain amount of information concerning your qualifications. This information is intended to establish:

  • on what basis you are a fully qualified teacher in an EEA country (degree alone, diploma and professional examination, etc.);
  • the subjects you are fully qualified to teach in an EEA country (e.g. mathematics, history, etc.);
  • the different age groups you are fully qualified to teach:
    • pre-school (3-6 years);
    • primary (6-12 years);
    • lower secondary (12-15 years);
    • upper secondary (15-18 years);
    • higher (over 18 years).

The file is examined in detail by a specially appointed advisory body, the Commission des titres pour l 'accès aux fonctions enseignantes. The Commission's experts check to what extent foreign qualifications and related professional activities can be recognised in FW-B.

The professional recognition granted only allows you to exercise the function that has been granted to you by the aforementioned Commission des Titres. 

  • Example: The post of professor of mathematics will not allow the person concerned to perform the function of a professor of physics.

In addition, you may be granted partial access to the corresponding teaching position in FW-B in some cases.

  • Example: You are a teacher of English and Slovenian in your Member State. In FW-B, the Slovenian language is not taught in our schools and therefore does not correspond to any function. Professional recognition will therefore be confined to the teaching of one subject only, namely the English language.

The recognition granted may in some cases be conditional on the implementation of compensatory measures. Such compensatory measures may take the form of an adaptation period and an aptitude test.

 

Once all the requested documents have been provided for the compilation of the file, we have a maximum period of one month to acknowledge receipt of your file. An opinion on your application for recognition must be issued by the Commission des titres pour l 'accès aux fonctions enseignantes within three months. On the basis of this opinion, the final decision will be sent to you by our relevant department.

 

The cost of this procedure is €65.  

Namely:

These procedural costs will be paid in a second stage, after being informed by our Directorate.

This amount does not include indirect costs, such as any costs for sworn translations of academic documents where the original language of the documents is neither English nor French.

Decisions on professional recognition may be appealed to the Council of State  for annulment. The Council of State is the Belgian court with jurisdiction for challenging all appeals against administrative decisions.

The services of the Walloon Ombudsman and the Walloon-Brussels Federation are also at your disposal for any information with regard to challenging an administrative decision. The Ombudsman receives complaints concerning the functioning of the administrative services in relations with citizens. The latter is independent and the free recourse attempts to provide an answer, a further explanation, a new direction and reconciliation of the different points of view between the citizen and the administration.

At European level, SOLVIT is a free online service provided by the national administration of each EU country as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. SOLVIT is available to citizens who feel that their rights are not respected by the administration of another EU country and who have not yet taken legal action.