2State incentives for training and employment

2.1 Training incentives

Law 30/2015, of September 9, 2015, regulating the Vocational Training for Employment System in the area of employment, regulates the training incentives system currently in force, with the following main goals: (i) to guarantee that workers, employees and unemployed workers, in particular the most vulnerable, can exercise their right to training; (ii) to contribute effectively to the competitiveness of Spanish companies; (iii) to increase collective negotiation aimed at bringing the offer of training initiatives into line with the demands of the productive system; and (iv) to offer efficiency and transparency in public resources management.

However, it should be borne in mind that Employment Law 3/2023, of February 28, 2023, was recently approved. Article 33 of such Law provides that the principles, objectives and regulation of the in-work training system will be subject to specific regulation and that, in any event, the aims of in-work training are essentially as follows: (i) to foster training throughout the life of employed and unemployed workers; (ii) to vest the right to training and to career advancement; (iii) to improve workers’ occupational skills; (iv) to contribute to improvements in the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; (v) to ensure that all the training content taught in in-work training is done with a gender perspective; (vi) to enhance workers’ employability; (vii) to ensure that the occupational skills acquired by workers are subject to an assessment process as part of in-work training; (viii) to facilitate the transition toward high-quality employment and occupational mobility; (ix) to accompany the digital and green transformation processes and foster social and territorial cohesion, as well as gender equality; and (x) to boost programmed training by enterprises.

Therefore, significant changes can be expected to occur in this area in the short term.

In any case, the vocational training for employment system currently in force is aimed at companies and workers anywhere in Spanish territory. It is an initiative based on coordination, collaboration and cooperation between the Central Government, the autonomous communities, leading business associations and trade union organizations, and other agents, and it aims to guarantee the unity of the market and ensure that a strategic approach is adopted in relation to training, while at the same time respecting, naturally, the existing distribution of powers in this respect.

Such system is to be financed by, among other funds, the vocational training for employment contributions paid by companies and workers, on the terms established by their specific regulations (considering in any case the distribution of powers between the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training) and in accordance with the provisions of the annual General State Budget Laws, by the contributions included in the budget of the State Public Employment Service¹, and by whatever own funds the Autonomous Communities may decide to allocate to it within the framework of their own budgets.

According to the definition provided in Law 30/2015, a training initiative refers to any of the forms of training for employment which are intended to provide an immediate response to the different individual needs and needs of the productive system, and such initiatives should be geared, specifically, towards promoting the acquisition, improvement and ongoing updating of vocational skills and qualifications, favoring training throughout the entire working life of the active population, conjugating the needs of people, of enterprises, of territories and of productive sectors.

Based on this premise, the training initiatives considered eligible for financing within the framework of the vocational training for employment system currently in force must as a general rule, conform to any of the following four types (which are regulated in detail in Royal Decree 694/2017 of July 3, 2017, containing the implementing regulations for Law 30/2015):

• Programmed training offered by employers to their workers: Training initiatives that seek to respond to the real, immediate and specific training needs of employers and their workers, able to be carried out directly by employers or entrusted to an external agency accredited and/or registered at the appropriate registry.
• Training offered by the relevant authorities to employed workers: Aimed at fulfilling needs not covered by the programmed training offered by employers to their workers. These training initiatives are targeted at employed workers and take the following into consideration: (i) a company’s productivity and competitiveness requirements; (ii) the need to adapt to changes at the workplace, and (iii) workers’ aspirations for professional promotion and personal development.
• Training offered by the relevant authorities to unemployed workers: Training initiatives for unemployed workers in line with individual training needs and with the needs of the production system, aimed at enabling workers to acquire the skills which are required by the job market, thus improving their employability.
• Other vocational training initiatives (including, inter alia, individual leaves of absence for training and work-linked training): Training initiatives aimed at favoring a worker’s professional and personal development, while responding to the needs of the labor market.

With respect to programmed training offered by employers to their workers and individual leaves of absence from work, employers are eligible - for the financing of the costs generated - for a so-called "training credit", of which they may avail themselves through reductions to the corresponding employer social security contributions, applicable in line with the communication by the employer of the completion of the training initiatives provided.

The amount of this training credit will depend on the amount of the vocational training contributions paid in by each company in the previous year, and on the percentage stipulated annually in the General State Budgets Law*, depending on the size of the company, with the guarantee of a minimum training credit linked to the number of employees a company’s workforce, which can be higher than the vocational training contributions paid by the company into the social security system. Companies shall contribute with their own resources to the financing of their workers’ training with a variable percentage of 5% (for companies with between 6 and 9 employees), 10% (10 to 49 employees), 20% (50 to 249 employees) or up to 40% (250 or more employees).

It should be noted that the amount of the credit, and therefore the reduction which companies can apply to their contributions, varies according to the type of training provided:

1. According to information obtained from the authorities, until new limits are approved by Ministerial Order, those that are currently in force will continue to be applied, in this case those of Ministerial Order TAS/2307/2007.

Finally, it should also be taken into account that companies that train those affected by temporary layoff procedures will be entitled to an increase in credit to finance steps in the area of programmed training. The amount of that credit increase, which will vary according to the size of the company, is the figure set out in article 9.7 of Law 30/2015 (ranging from €425 to €320 per person), although it could be updated by regulations.

It should be borne in mind that companies that receive social security contribution benefits applicable to temporary layoff procedures must provide training, in the terms established in additional provision forty-four of the revised General Social Security Law, approved by Legislative Royal Decree 8/2015, of October 30, 2015, and additional provision twenty-five of the revised Workers’ Statute, approved by Legislative Royal Decree 2/2015, of October 23, 2015.

On the other hand, so that public commitments in this respect can be met and training initiatives aimed at both active and unemployed workers can be carried into effect, Law 30/2015 establishes a system of public subsidies, awarded through a competitive process, in which all training entities which meet the requirements in terms of accreditation and/or registration stipulated in the applicable legislation can take part. In the case of training programs entailing a hiring commitment, the process is open to companies and entities which undertake to formalize the corresponding contracts in the terms stipulated in the pertinent regulations.

The specific conditions to be met to be eligible for such subsidies are established by the Ministry of Employment and Social Economy in the corresponding Order.

Order TMS/368/2019, of March 28, 2019, linked to Royal Decree 694/2017 of July 3, 2017, which in turn implemented Law 30/2015 of September 9, 2015, regulating the Vocational Training for Employment System, currently applies to the training initiatives offered by the relevant authorities and their financing, and establishes the regulatory specifications for the grant of public subsidies to be used for said financing.

Pursuant to Order TMS/368/2019, the above-mentioned training initiatives for employed workers must be implemented through (i) industry-wide training programs; (ii) transversal training programs; and (iii) professional qualification and recognition programs.

In addition, in the case of unemployed workers, the training initiatives are to be implemented through (i) training programs offered by the public employment services, aimed at meeting the training needs detected in personalized insertion itineraries and in job offers; (ii) specific training programs targeted at unemployed workers with special training needs or difficulties for their insertion or professional requalification; and (iii) training programs including commitments to hire.

The regulations of Order TMS/368/2019 exclude, inter alia, training programmed offered by companies to their own workers and individual training leave, which will be regulated and financed pursuant to Law 30/2015, and to Royal Decree 694/2017, mentioned above.

The maximum and minimum limits of the subsidies that can be granted to finance these training initiatives (of which public or private training entities, accredited and/or registered in the Training Entities Register, may be beneficiaries) for each specialization included in the Catalog of Training Specializations will be set by regulation and will include the possibility of adjusting the specific units established by the relevant authorities for their management area². Meanwhile, however, the following maximum general economic units, as set forth in Schedule I of the Order, may be considered:

Lastly, training initiatives not related to professionality certificates, targeted at unemployed workers, may include the performance of unpaid work experience at companies, linked to the training initiatives and related to their training content, subject to the execution of an agreement between the company and the training entity. In this context, beneficiary companies can receive, as a direct concession, additional economic compensation per student per training hour, with a maximum amount of €6.00.