ANAPEC and Germany: how the public placement route into an Ausbildung actually works

What ANAPEC actually does with Germany

ANAPEC is Morocco's public employment agency and its services are free: the international placement section on anapec.ma is the official entry point to jobs abroad. On the German side your counterpart is not a private agency but the ZAV, the international placement service of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit.

Two public programmes currently link Morocco to Germany. THAMM Plus, co-financed by the European Union and run by the GIZ together with the ZAV for Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, lists mechatronics, electrical trades, metal and construction. MAzubi, run by the ZAV with the Moroccan employment administration, targets metal trades only.

The division of roles is simple: ANAPEC registers candidates, receives the files and runs the first selection inside Morocco, the ZAV deals with German companies, and the GIZ supervises the language and cultural preparation in THAMM Plus projects. The German embassy in Rabat and TLScontact only come in at the last stage, the visa.

The channel is still alive: a call backed by THAMM Plus was published on 7 August 2026, and its filing period runs until 4 September 2026. That says nothing about the next one: no calendar, no quota and no date for the next round are published anywhere.

What a call actually looks like

One example, to be read as a description of the format rather than an opportunity: in August 2026 a call offered 30 apprenticeship places in bakery and sales, for a paid three-year Ausbildung starting in September 2027, with full-time language and cultural preparation from November 2026. At the time we publish, this call is still open: the deadline runs until 4 September 2026. Check the date on the text published by ANAPEC, not on a site copying it.

Two observed calls, catering in 2025 and bakery in 2026, share the same base: being registered with ANAPEC and looking for work, holding the baccalauréat or an equivalent diploma — a technician's diploma was accepted in the 2025 catering call and a science stream was preferred in the bakery call, while a mere baccalauréat level without the diploma is not admissible —, proving six months of experience or training in the trade, and filing a complete application at the nearest ANAPEC branch, over the counter and never by e-mail to a German address. The 2025 catering call also required a fiche anthropométrique with no particular entry, that is a criminal record extract: never treat this list as complete, the list that counts is the one in the text of the call.

Everything else changes from one call to the next, starting with German: an A2 certificate plus a placement test for the 2026 bakery call, a B1 certificate recognised by the German embassy for the 2025 catering call. There is no ANAPEC German level, only the level of each call, written in its own text.

Age: where the 18 to 25 rule really comes from

The bakery call required applicants to be between 18 and 25 on 31 December 2026; the 2025 catering call, between 18 and 25 on 1 August 2025. That is a selection criterion of the scheme, set by the programme and its funder, exactly like the number of places or the deadline. It is not a residence condition.

§ 16a AufenthG, the residence permit for the Berufsausbildung, contains no age limit at all: its four subsections require the approval of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit under § 39 or an exemption, plus proof of German when the training itself does not test it. Age appears nowhere in the text.

The only age limit in German law here is 35, in § 17 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 AufenthG, and it covers the permit that allows you to come and look for a training place, nine months at most — and that permit carries its own cumulative conditions: a qualification giving access to university, sufficient German and proven means of subsistence, with a right to work capped at 20 hours a week. Many blogs claim 25: the statute says 35, and it deals with a different permit. Being above a call's cap rules you out of that call, not out of the Ausbildung.

What the programme demands from the German employer

Under THAMM Plus the company commits in writing: at least 1,048 € gross per month, presented by the Bundesagentur für Arbeit as the subsistence condition for the visa — a 2026 value, reviewed every year —, adequate accommodation, the visa documents and the procedure fees, the flight and the trip to the workplace, plus a recommended B2 course at the start.

MAzubi repeated that base, as the ZAV described it on pages that are now offline: at least 1,048 € gross, accommodation, a named mentor in the company, access to the Berufsschule, and coverage of the costs actually incurred, including the accelerated procedure and the journey. The same threshold is also written 822 € net: two ways of writing one threshold for a company-based Ausbildung, not two amounts. The 1,048 € gross figure is the 2026 subsistence threshold of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit; have ANAPEC confirm the programme's commitments before counting on them.

Do not generalise that coverage: it is contractual and specific to these programmes. In an ordinary application the German company is the one that launches the accelerated procedure under § 81a — the candidate cannot trigger it — but its 411 € remain in principle payable by the candidate, unless a written Kostenübernahmeerklärung exists; the appointment is then usually granted within three weeks of the Vorabzustimmung. The national D visa costs 75 €, filed in Rabat through TLScontact only. The legal minimum for the first year stands at 724 € gross per month in 2026 (682 € in 2025), and it should not be confused with the visa subsistence threshold: the pay announced in a call is neither that legal first-year minimum nor the subsistence threshold required for the visa, they are three different figures.

The trades covered, and the one that is missing

MAzubi targets metal trades: Industriemechaniker, Konstruktionsmechaniker, Zerspanungsmechaniker, Fachkraft für Metalltechnik, Maschinen- und Anlagenführer, plus plastics technology. Calls in hospitality, catering or bakery appear occasionally, at the edge of that technical core.

MAzubi asks for a first vocational qualification or a baccalauréat with relevant practical experience, and good German, B1 at least, acquired in the home country. THAMM Plus describes a joint selection by the GIZ, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit and local employment administrations under demanding criteria, and funds an intensive course aiming at B1 before departure.

The missing one is care. No official source consulted documents an ANAPEC or ZAV route into Pflege for Morocco, which does not appear among the partner countries of the health programmes of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit. That is not a ban and should not be written as one, but nothing of the kind is documented: for a care profile, the workable route today is the direct application, and any promise of a public call in care work should put you on your guard.

Direct applications: the second route, open all year

A direct application has no call, no deadline, no age cap and no quota. You write to training companies yourself, with a German-standard file: Lebenslauf, an Anschreiben tailored to the trade, translated certificates. More demanding on file quality, far more flexible on timing, though the Ausbildung year still starts in August–September and most companies select six to twelve months ahead.

On the visa side the rules do not change with the route: B1 is the legal minimum for an Ausbildung, the certificate must come from the closed accepted list, namely Goethe-Institut, telc, ÖSD, TestDaF from B2 and ECL, and it must be less than twelve months old when you file. A certificate issued by a private language school does not count, however serious the school: only a certificate from the list above is accepted when you file. These administrative rules move: check the checklist in force on the day you file.

The Moroccan side takes time: with only two Goethe-Institut locations in the country, Casablanca and Rabat, waiting lists for courses and exam sessions are long — book several months ahead. Budget around 3,000 MAD per course level and 2,500 MAD for the B1 exam. Plan sworn translations and classic legalisation too, because Morocco joined the Hague Convention but Germany raised an objection, so the apostille has no effect between the two countries.

Free on both sides: your best anti-scam signal

The Bundesagentur für Arbeit states that its service is always free, employers included, and ANAPEC services are free as well: the bakery call explicitly noted that this training offer is free. Nobody should be charging you for access to a public call, because it belongs to no intermediary.

ANAPEC has itself publicly warned against scams using its visual identity to sell fake contracts abroad. These calls circulate mainly through Moroccan listing sites that republish them: useful to spot a call, never to establish its criteria. Copies age, deadlines pass, German levels get mixed up. Always go back to the text published by ANAPEC.

Check the German links too: the addresses of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit move, and the two old MAzubi pages now lead nowhere even though they still sit at the top of search results — remember the programme name rather than the link. And free public placement does not make leaving free: language courses, translations, legalisation and the visa remain your own costs.

• A payment demanded for access to an ANAPEC offer that is public and free
• A German contract pledged against an advance, when no intermediary decides in a company's place
• A criterion quoted without the call's own text being shown to you
• An age limit presented as legal at 25, which § 16a AufenthG does not set