People in Ghana usually hear about Ausbildung before they hear about the German requirement, and by the time they find out what level is needed, they have often already lost a year. This is the part that is worth knowing at the start.
The short answer: B1, and often B2
An Ausbildung is a paid vocational training place in a German company, combined with vocational school. The teaching, the textbooks, the workplace and the final examination are all in German. That is why the language requirement is higher than most people expect.
B1 is the usual minimum asked for by employers and by the visa process. B2 is what many employers actually want, and it is close to essential in nursing, care work and anything involving patients, customers or safety instructions. In some technical trades B1 is genuinely enough.
Requirements differ by employer, by federal state and by profession, and they change. The German Embassy in Accra publishes the current visa requirements and is the authority on that part. The employer sets their own bar on top of it. Ask both, in writing, before you plan around a number.
Why B1 is a much bigger step than it sounds
People see A1, A2, B1 and assume three equal steps. They are not equal.
Using the published guideline hours converted into full 60 minute lessons, the rough shape is about 90 lessons to A1, around 100 more to A2, and around 150 more to B1. So B1 from a standing start is in the region of 340 lessons, not three times A1.
In calendar time, at two lessons a week that is roughly three years. At three lessons a week, roughly two. Those numbers are uncomfortable and they are the reason this article exists, because almost nobody is told them at the beginning.
If B2 is required, add roughly another 160 lessons on top.
What this means for your planning
Start before you have a place, not after. The usual sequence is to look for an Ausbildung position first and then begin German. That order costs a year or more, because the employer wants to see a certificate now and you are starting from zero. Employers are also far more likely to respond to an application that already shows B1 in progress.
Choose a frequency that reaches your date. One lesson a week will not get you to B1 in a useful timeframe. If Ausbildung is the goal, two or three lessons a week is the realistic path, and that is a decision about money and time that is better made honestly at the start than discovered halfway.
Count the practice. Roughly half an hour of your own work for every hour in class. Over the road to B1 that is a substantial commitment on its own, and leaving it out is the most common reason people take far longer than the guideline.
Is it worth it?
That is your decision and not ours to make for you. What we can say is that the people who finish are the ones who knew the size of it before they started. The ones who stop tend to be the ones who were told it would take six months.
It is also worth knowing that German learned for an Ausbildung does not expire if the plan changes. B1 is the level at which a language becomes genuinely useful for work, study and travel, whatever you end up doing with it.
Work out your own numbers
Because the honest answer depends on where you start and how often you can come, we built a calculator that does the arithmetic for your own case, including the practice time at home. It is on our page for German for Ausbildung, study and family reunification, together with what each stage covers.
If your immediate requirement is A1 for a visa rather than B1 for the training itself, we wrote about that separately in how long it really takes to reach A1, and about the exam itself in what happens in the German A1 exam.
How we teach it
At Studyfreunde in Airport West, Accra, adults learn in groups of no more than four, and a lesson is a full 60 minutes rather than 45. For a road as long as B1, the group size is not a comfort, it is the difference between speaking for fifteen minutes an hour and speaking for two.
If no group is currently running at your level, you begin one to one at the same plan price until one forms. Current times are on the timetable and the plans are on the pricing page.
Come to a free trial lesson and tell us your target and your deadline. We will tell you honestly whether it is reachable, including when we think it is not.
