Career opportunities
Based on previous competencies, the master's degree will enable you to perform independent and management activities in various professional fields and functions, including:
- Nutritional counseling [e.g. in clinics, with associations and health insurance companies]
- Prevention and health promotion [e.g. in companies, public institutions, ministries]
- Nutrition communication [e.g. public relations, blog posts, journalistic work, start ups in the nutrition sector]
- Nutrition therapy [e.g. in clinics, specialized practices, nursing facilities, health centers]
- Science and research [e.g. at universities, research institutions]
- Expert and teaching activities [e.g. for public institutions, at vocational schools]
(For cooperation with statutory health insurance companies, an additional qualification [e.g. nutritionist DGE, nutritionist VDOE] may be necessary.)
The following overview is intended to give you an impression of the wide range of professional opportunities:
© Maximilian Blochberger-Claus
Graduates who wish to work in the field of primary prevention and would like to offer their clients a subsidy from the statutory health insurance funds must be registered with the Central Prevention Testing Center (ZPP). The ZPP was set up by the Cooperation Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds for the examination and certification of prevention courses in accordance with the fields of action and criteria of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds for the implementation of § 20 of the German Social Code V in order to establish a uniform quality standard for prevention courses in Germany.
In order to register with the ZPP, a corresponding provider qualification is required, i.e. you need a corresponding nutrition-related degree that meets the "GKV minimum standards".
Graduates of the master's degree program meet the GKV minimum standards by including individual course contents (from the competence field "Theory and Practice of Food and Commodity Science") from your previous studies. If the content of the previous degree program is not sufficient, it is possible to take modules from the career-integrated Bachelor's program in Nutrition Therapy for a fee or to bring in the missing content from other further education courses.
An individual application is always required for registration with the ZPP.
Further information on registration can be found under Link-ZPP.
A nutritionist certificate is a mark of quality for expert nutritional counseling and therapy. For graduates who want to become self-employed in the field of nutritional counseling/therapy and would like to offer their clients a subsidy from the statutory health insurance funds, certification is usually necessary. If you want to work as an employee in nutritional counseling/therapy, some employers also expect you to be certified.
The master's degree program is recognized for certification according to the admission criteria of the DGE as well as the e-cert admission requirements (according to Annex 5 of the contract according to § 125 paragraph 1 SGB V on the provision of Nutrition Therapy services and their remuneration - point 4.1). For this purpose, certain basic and dietetic contents from the previous (Bachelor's) degree program must be brought along.
If the content of the previous degree program is not sufficient, it is possible to take modules from the career-integrated program Nutrition Therapy for a fee.
This gives graduates of the Nutrition Therapy master's degree program the opportunity to obtain a certificate from various certificate providers:
Nutritionist/DGE
e-Zert Nutrition Therapy
Qualified Diet and Nutrition Consultant VEFD
With certification, you also meet the requirements for nutrition counseling/therapy according to the framework agreement on quality assurance in nutrition counseling and nutrition education in Germany in the version dated 01.02.2024.
