Certified literacy - do skills tests encourage learning and help fill open jobs?

In German-speaking countries there has been a notable decline in taxonomic training opportunities at universities and an increasing erosion of established taxonomists. At the same time the public and private sector is in increasing demand for people with identification and assessment skills of species, habitats and ecological processes. Against this backdrop public examination opportunities were implemented to motivate new and existing naturalists to work towards one of three levels of expertise on plants, fungi or different groups of animals, i.e. birds, butterflies, reptiles, dragonflies, wild bees. The highest of three levels aimed to be a reliable, market-oriented benchmark for early-career practitioners or scientists. The other two levels represent milestones on an individual or formal path of learning. Anyone could register for an exam irrespective of how, where and within which period the required skills were acquired. Since 2010 over 5.000 people have successfully tested their skills. In addition, some universities have begun to reinstate taxonomic training and use the framework of the public exams as a reference for their own course alignments. Furthermore, a growing number of job advertisements specifically mention the certificates as a prerequisite for applicants. These three developments are very positive as such. In a recent online survey >600 successful candidates of a field botany certificate (2010 to 2024) replied that an intrinsic interest in plants was the main motivation for taking the exams. The great majority of the respondents answered that they still apply their botany skills on a regular basis in a professional or non-professional setting. Especially respondents at the highest level valued having reliable proof of relevant practical skills. They also state a positive effect in a professional context. Overall, there is a high level of satisfaction with the modular system of skills certificates. The challenge is now to keep up the momentum and to find creative means of teaching and mentoring difficult taxonomic entities, e.g. certain groups of beetles or flies, where the number of interested people is traditionally low.