  Nowadays, there exist a plethora of different educational syllabi for
Requirements Engineering (RE), all aiming at incorporating practically relevant
educational units (EUs). Many of these syllabi are based, in one way or the
other, on the syllabi provided by the International Requirements Engineering
Board (IREB), a non-profit organisation devoted to standardised certification
programs for RE. IREB syllabi are developed by RE experts and are, thus, based
on the assumption that they address topics of practical relevance. However,
little is known about to what extent practitioners actually perceive those
contents as useful. We have started a study to investigate the relevance of the
EUs included in the IREB Foundation Level certification programme. In a first
phase reported in this paper, we have surveyed practitioners mainly from DACH
countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) participating in the IREB
certification. Later phases will widen the scope both by including other
countries and by not requiring IREB-certified participants. The results shall
foster a critical reflection on the practical relevance of EUs built upon the
de-facto standard syllabus of IREB.
