You do not need a certificate or education to do office work. In fact, the German employment agency specifically points to office work as a type of job where it

You do not need a certificate or education to do office work. In fact, the German employment agency specifically points to office work as a type of job where it's easiest to find employment without prior education [1]. It can be difficult to find competitive jobs without a tertiary education (college or apprenticeship). But that has little to do with a title fetish and much with the fact that tertiary education is heavily subsidized (both college and apprenticeships), so the vast majority of Germans have one. Note in particular that German apprenticeships are not internships; they are accredited forms of education in the dual system [2]. Without such an education, you will almost always compete against a person who has it, so even though it may not be strictly needed, it may be difficult to impossible to get a job without one (especially in jobs that do require experience or training). That's not to say that forms of rent-seeking do not occur within this system, but they generally occur at higher levels of qualification (such as requiring a "Meister" -- not to be confused with a master's degree -- to run certain kinds of businesses). [1] http://www.arbeitsagentur.de/nn_419854/Navigation/zentral/Veroeffentlichungen/Themenhefte-durchstarten/Job-ohne-Ausbildung/Job-ohne-Ausbildung-Nav.html http://www.arbeitsagentur.de/nn_419854/Navigation/zentral/Ve... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_education_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_education_system