On 1 January 2027, Germany's nationwide nursing assistant training begins. The Nursing Assistant Act (Pflegefachassistenzgesetz) replaces 27 (Federal Ministry of Health) training routes regulated at state level with a single occupational profile. The training normally takes 18 months (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) full-time, can be stretched to as much as 36 months (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) part-time, can be shortened for relevant prior experience and is paid throughout - so far that was the case for only about half of all trainees (The Federal Government). Anyone who wants to fill training places in January 2027 does not decide that in December 2026. Applicant acquisition is set up during 2026, on your own career page rather than on third-party portals alone. This article shows how a training page has to be built to reach an audience that has barely been addressed so far.
Key takeaways
- On 1 January 2027 the nationally standardised nursing assistant training starts, replacing 27 (Federal Ministry of Health) training paths regulated by individual states; the training and examination regulation is dated 2 June 2026.
- The key facts for the training page: 18 months (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) full time, up to 36 months part time, paid throughout, and shortened to 12 months or less with relevant prior experience.
- Applicants without a school leaving certificate can start in exceptional cases if the nursing school certifies good prospects of success (Federal Government). Framing this as an exclusion criterion loses exactly the audience the reform opened the door for.
- Home care services carry the largest demand and the smallest share of trainees: 86 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of people needing care are looked after at home, yet only 12 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of the 2025 training contracts went to them.
- The training needs its own landing page with a readable URL rather than a bullet under open positions: only a dedicated page carries local context, old and new job titles, JobPosting markup (Google Search Central) and EducationalOccupationalProgram (Schema.org).
- The application path decides the outcome: a short form with four fields, no mandatory CV or certificate upload, and a callback option with a preferred time slot. The page does not replace counselling; its job is to trigger the first contact.
What changes on 1 January 2027
Nursing assistance has been a patchwork. Depending on the federal state, the job title, duration, content, entry requirements and even the question of whether any training allowance was paid at all differed. That ends next year: 27 (Federal Ministry of Health) differently regulated state-level programmes become one nationwide, generalist nursing assistant training. Federal Health Minister Nina Warken puts it this way: "Through a nationwide and generalist training we replace the previously 27 differently regulated state-level programmes" (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth).
The timetable is solid; the law is no longer an announcement. The Bundesrat approved the nationwide nursing assistant training on 17 October 2025 (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). The training and examination regulation for nursing assistance is dated 2 June 2026 and comes into force on 1 January 2027 (Nursing Assistant Act and PflFAssAPrV). On 30 June 2026 the expert commission under the Nursing Professions Act handed the framework curriculum and the framework training plan to the two responsible ministries (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). The substantive groundwork is in place - while many providers have not even planned their applicant acquisition yet.
Three details matter most for home care services. First, the job title: it will be Pflegefachassistentin, Pflegefachassistent or Pflegefachassistenzperson (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) - these are exactly the terms people will search for from 2027. Second, the mandatory placements: the training is generalist and includes placements in residential long-term care, home-based long-term care and inpatient acute care (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Every trainee therefore spends time with a home care service at least once. Third, permeability: the structure of the training makes a shortened qualification as a fully qualified nurse possible (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth).
That permeability is the real lever for your communication. Nursing assistance is not a dead end but an entry point with a route onward. Federal Family Minister Karin Prien calls it a "low-threshold entry into an attractive and permeable nursing education system" (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Explaining that in plain language on your training page reaches people who have not considered a three-year nursing qualification so far. The training is financed using the same procedure as the qualification for fully qualified nurses under the Nursing Professions Act (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth).
One profile instead of 27
The Nursing Assistant Act replaces 27 state-regulated nursing assistant programmes (Federal Ministry of Health). Qualifications become comparable across the country, and moving to another state no longer devalues them.
18 months, part-time up to 36
The standard full-time duration is 18 months; part-time can run up to 36 months (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). For people with children or caring responsibilities of their own, this is often the decisive point.
Paid throughout
For the first time all trainees receive an appropriate allowance throughout. So far that was the case for only about half of them (The Federal Government). This belongs high up on the page, not in a footnote.
Entry without a school certificate
A lower secondary school certificate is normally required. In exceptional cases people without any school certificate can start if the nursing school certifies good chances of success (The Federal Government).
Shortening for prior experience
There are extensive options to shorten the training, especially with relevant occupational experience, for example to 12 months or less (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Anyone who has already worked in care support does not start from zero.
Recognition of foreign qualifications
Recognition of qualifications obtained abroad will become considerably easier (The Federal Government). For services that receive international applications, part of the previous uncertainty disappears.
Why home care services have to act first
Staffing pressure hits home-based care first, because that is where the people are. In December 2023, 5.69 million (Federal Statistical Office) people in Germany needed care, an increase of 15 percent (Federal Statistical Office) or 730,000 people compared with December 2021. Almost nine out of ten of them - 86 percent (Federal Statistical Office) or 4.9 million people - were cared for at home. 1.1 million (Federal Statistical Office) of them lived in private households with support from home care services; the number of people looked after by home care services rose by 5.1 percent (Federal Statistical Office), or 54,000 people, compared with 2021.
The distribution of new trainees looks entirely different. In 2025 around 63,900 (Federal Statistical Office) new training contracts for fully qualified nurses were signed, up 8 percent (Federal Statistical Office) and the third consecutive increase after 52,100 in 2022 and 59,400 in 2024. Of those new contracts, roughly 50 percent (Federal Statistical Office) were with hospitals, 36 percent (Federal Statistical Office) with residential care facilities and only 12 percent (Federal Statistical Office) with home care providers. In other words: the sector that looks after 86 percent of all people needing care trains about one eighth of the next generation.
5.69 m
people needing care in December 2023 (Federal Statistical Office)
86%
of people needing care are looked after at home (Federal Statistical Office)
12%
of new nursing training contracts in 2025 were with home care providers (Federal Statistical Office)
This imbalance is not a snapshot. The Federal Statistical Office's nursing workforce projection expects a shortfall of between 280,000 (Federal Statistical Office) and 690,000 (Federal Statistical Office) nurses by 2049, depending on the scenario; demand rises from 1.62 million in 2019 to 2.15 million (Federal Statistical Office), an increase of 33 percent (Federal Statistical Office). Hospitals and residential facilities have established routes to schools, placements and applicants. Home care services compete for the same people, often without an HR department and without their own nursing school. For them the website is not a nice-to-have but the one channel they control completely.
Nursing assistance shifts the starting position in favour of home care services, because it opens up new applicant groups: shorter, paid, with shortening options and with access that does not end at a missing school certificate. Anyone running a website for a home care service now holds an argument in 2026 that did not exist in 2025. The only question is whether that argument appears on the page.
The lead is built in 2026, not 2027
The training page: a dedicated landing page, not a bullet point
The most common mistake is quickly described: the training appears as the third bullet under "Vacancies", between a nursing role and an office job, with two sentences and an email address. That makes it practically invisible to search engines and intangible to interested people. Training is not a job but a life decision with plenty of open questions: What will I earn? How long does it take? Can I manage without a certificate? Do I have to quit my job? Those questions need room that a bullet point cannot offer.
The alternative is a dedicated landing page with its own descriptive URL, for example /careers/nursing-assistant-training/. It is the place where searches such as "Pflegefachassistenz Ausbildung Hannover" can land, that the nursing school can link to and that you can name in adverts, on notices and in conversation. A dedicated page can also carry structured data, show your own photos and hold its own application path. A bullet point can do none of that. How to separate training and vacancy communication sensibly is also covered in the article on recruiting staff via the care website; current vacancies stay untouched in your care job postings.
| Aspect | Bullet in the jobs tab | Dedicated training page |
|---|---|---|
| URL | Part of the vacancy list, not linkable | Its own descriptive URL to pass on |
| Search visibility | Competes with every other vacancy | One page, one topic, one search term |
| Depth | Two sentences and an email address | Pay, duration, access, process, contact |
| Access question | "Requirement: school certificate" | Also explains the route without a certificate |
| Application | Email with complete documents | Mobile short application, callback as an option |
| Structured data | Cannot sensibly be marked up | Training place described machine-readably |
The structure of the page follows the audience's questions, not the provider's org chart. At the very top: what this is and when it starts. Then the three numbers that decide between staying and clicking away: pay, duration, access. Only after that come tasks, team, locations and how the training runs. The contact route does not belong at the end but after every major section - people make up their minds at different points.
- A dedicated URL and an H1 containing the term Pflegefachassistenz, not just "training"
- Start date 1 January 2027 and the application window visible on the first screen
- Pay, duration (18 months full-time, up to 36 part-time) and access directly underneath
- A section on shortening for prior experience, with concrete examples instead of paragraphs
- Real photos from your own service instead of stock images with smiling models
- A named contact person with photo and direct number - not info@ as the only route
- A mobile short application without a cover letter, reachable from every section
- FAQ on recognition of prior experience, school certificates and the route to full qualification
Plain language instead of officialese: pay, duration, access
The three most common questions can be answered in three sentences - if you dare. On pay: for the first time all trainees receive an appropriate allowance throughout; so far that was the case for only about half of them (The Federal Government). For many people this is the central piece of information, because it is what makes the training affordable in the first place. If you can name the actual amount, name it. If you cannot, write what the allowance is based on and when you will quantify it in conversation. What you should avoid is the phrase "pay by arrangement" - it reads like a risk.
On duration: 18 months full-time, up to 36 months part-time (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). The part-time option belongs next to the full-time figure as an equal, not inside a bracket. For single parents or people who care for relatives themselves, that one sentence decides the application. And on shortening: there are extensive options to shorten the training, especially with relevant occupational experience, for example to 12 months or less (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Phrase it as an invitation, not an administrative caveat: "Have you already worked in care support? Then we will check together with the nursing school whether your training can be shortened."
Do not phrase the school certificate as a knock-out
Plain language also means: no text blocks lifted from the bill. Writing "generalist training with mandatory placements in the three major care sectors" on the page is formally correct and practically lost. More understandable: "With us you get to know home-based care, and as part of the training you also work in a care facility and in a hospital." That factual guide content generates enquiries when it explains a concrete service instead of advertising it is also shown in the article on guide pages around the 2026 relief budget.
Anyone who hides the exception on their training page only addresses the people they would get anyway. Access without a school certificate is not small print - it is the core of the reform.
The audience nobody has addressed so far
The most interesting consequence of the law is not standardisation but opening up. An 18-month, paid training with a shortening option and access that is not strictly tied to a school certificate reaches people who have not considered a three-year nursing qualification until now. These people do not read the trade press and do not follow career portals. They search in the evening on their phone, often with very concrete questions: "learn nursing without a certificate", "retraining in care with pay", "nursing training part-time".
Career changers
People from retail, hospitality or logistics looking for more meaningful work who have so far been put off by the length and the missing allowance. Three facts count for them: 18 months, paid throughout (The Federal Government), a clear route onward.
People without a school certificate
In exceptional cases a start without a school certificate is possible if the nursing school certifies good chances of success (The Federal Government). This group only applies if the page describes the route rather than the hurdle. A single sentence decides whether they get in touch.
Experience from abroad or in care support
Recognition of foreign qualifications becomes considerably easier (The Federal Government), and prior experience can shorten the training to 12 months or less (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Anyone who has worked in care support does not start from zero - and that belongs on the page.
For the third group it is worth looking beyond the German-language page. If you regularly receive applications from abroad, a clear, well-structured description of the recognition route makes a real difference; what that looks like in practice is described in the article on the career page for international care workers. One honest expectation matters: the page does not replace advice. It makes sure someone finds the courage to make first contact - it does not have to achieve more than that.
Application path: a mobile short application without a cover letter
A good training page without a working application path is an expensive misunderstanding. This is exactly where many already-convinced contacts are lost. People interested in an assistant qualification often have no current CV, no sorted certificates and no practice in writing cover letters. A form that demands a CV and a cover letter as mandatory fields filters out precisely the audience you wanted to win - technically flawless and substantively wrong.
A short application for a training place therefore needs very little: a name, one way to get in touch, the wish to start training from 2027 and optionally one sentence about previous experience. Everything else is settled in conversation. A callback option with a preferred time slot is not an add-on but the actual route for many people. The principles of low-barrier applications are described in detail in the article on the quick application without a cover letter; for training places they apply even more strongly, because the audience brings less application routine.
- Entry from every section of the training page, without login and without registration
- Four fields: name, phone or email, preferred start, optionally one sentence about experience
- No mandatory upload of CV or certificates in the first step
- A callback option with a preferred time slot as an equal alternative to the form
- An immediate confirmation of receipt stating when someone will be in touch
- A personal reply within a few days from a named contact person
The path also has to be usable by everyone. Large fields, clear labels, visible error messages and a sensible keyboard layout are not extra effort but the precondition for an application arriving at all. The requirements for an accessible care website largely overlap with what raises the completion rate. Test the path before the campaign - on an older smartphone with a poor connection, not on the office desktop.
Asking less means processing more carefully
Visibility: local search, nursing school, structured data
Training places are searched for locally. Search queries combine occupation and place, and from 2027 the term will shift: from "Pflegehelfer Ausbildung" to "Pflegefachassistenz Ausbildung". Both phrasings belong on the page for a transition period, because the old term will be searched for a long while and the new one still has to become known. The training page therefore needs the same care with local relevance, service area and contact person as a service page; the basics are covered under local SEO for care services.
The second lever is interlocking with the nursing school and your cooperation partners. Practical training includes mandatory placements in residential long-term care, home-based long-term care and inpatient acute care (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) - so you need partners anyway. Name those partners on the page, link to each other and give the nursing school a URL it can pass on. How systematic partner communication works via the website is shown in the article on the intensive care website that wins hospital referrals; the principle is the same with nursing schools.
The third lever is structured data. For job adverts Google documents the JobPosting schema with required properties such as title, description, hiring organisation, date posted and job location, plus recommended properties such as validity date, employment type and salary (Google Search Central). For training offers you can additionally use the EducationalOccupationalProgram schema, which describes duration, entry requirements and qualification in a machine-readable way (Schema.org). Both only work with a dedicated page per training offer - another reason against the bullet point.
- Old and new job titles on the page for as long as both are being searched for
- Local relevance in the title, the H1 and the copy - matching your actual service area
- Name placement locations and cooperation partners, link to each other
- JobPosting markup with title, description, organisation, date and location (Google Search Central)
- Additionally EducationalOccupationalProgram for duration, access and qualification (Schema.org)
- Maintain the validity date and remove expired offers instead of leaving them up
Portals and training-place search remain useful for reach, but they are a means, not an end. Every advert, every notice and every conversation should lead to your own training page, because only there do your team, your contact person and your application path live. A care website that works as a destination makes every other measure more effective - and it belongs to you, regardless of which portal offers which terms in three years.
The order of play up to the training start
The order matters more than the speed. First the page, then the path, then the reach - the other way round you burn attention on a page that cannot yet carry it. Concretely: the training page is created now, with the content that is already fixed. Start date, duration, the principle of payment, access and shortening are known and will not change; the framework curriculum has been available since 30 June 2026 (Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth). Waiting for details that play no part in the application decision anyway costs you the entire lead time.
- Now: build the training page as a dedicated landing page, with plain language on pay, duration, access and shortening.
- Straight after: set up the application path and test it on a real smartphone - short application, callback option, confirmation of receipt, reply route.
- In parallel: brief the nursing school and cooperation partners, agree mutual links, add structured data.
- From spring 2026: run the campaign - local search, notices, adverts, approaching care support staff in your own organisation, all pointing at the training page.
- From summer 2026: hold interviews, clarify shortenings with the nursing school, sign contracts for the start on 1 January 2027.
- Ongoing: look at the numbers - how many people reach the page, how many start the short application, how many complete it.
The last point tends to be skipped, yet it is the cheapest insight available. If many people reach the page and few start an application, the page is the problem. If many start and few complete, the path is the problem. If hardly anyone arrives, visibility is the problem. Those three cases need completely different measures - and without numbers you are guessing.
Start small, go live early
Sources and studies