An institutional early childhood education and care have recorded a significant development in quantity and quality in Germany during the last few years that is linked to the Federal Government's goal to provide early childhood education and care for 35 % of children under the age of three until 2013. With this expansion, the need to increase the number of qualified pedagogical staff is necessarily connected.
For this reason, Germany opened new opportunities to gain the required professional qualification for working in pre-school facilities. This paper outlines current approaches and deals especially with current reforms in training of pedagogical staff in early childhood education and care as well as with other training opportunities.