Subsidies for employed training: new regulatory bases in Catalonia

The Department of Enterprise and Labour has published in the Official Gazette of the Government of Catalonia (DOGC) No. 9722, of 4 August, the Order EMT/146/2026, of 30 July, approving the regulatory bases that are to govern the call for grants for the Programmes of the In-Work Training System aimed at employed workers. The regulation, signed by the minister Miquel Sàmper i Rodríguez, is managed by the Consortium for Continuing Education in Catalonia and enters into force on the day after its publication in the DOGC, that is, on 5 August 2026.

The Order falls within the state framework of vocational training for employment: it has its starting point in Law 30/2015 and Royal Decree 694/2017, and it adapts to Organic Law 3/2022 and Law 3/2023, which define in-work training as the set of initiatives to improve the qualification, requalification and employability of workers. The text repeals Order TSF/30/2020, of 11 March, and Order EMT/174/2023, of 3 July, which amended it, and incorporates the criteria of Royal Decree 438/2024 on the Common Portfolio of Services of the National Employment System. The grants fall under line code PES025-28_EMT0058 of the Department’s strategic grants plan for the period 2025-2028.

What is subsidised

The bases regulate in-work training programmes aimed primarily at employed workers, with the purpose of improving their employability and promoting employment promotion policies. Two types of subsidisable actions are distinguished:

• Cross-cutting training programmes: actions to acquire competences common to various sectors of economic activity, classified into cross-cutting areas, which favour employability and intersectoral mobility.
• Sectoral training programmes: actions of general interest for a given sector, classified into sectoral areas, to meet the specific training needs of the sector.

The amount of each grant is calculated from the product of the number of hours, the number of participants and the amount of the corresponding economic module, updated for 2026 by resolution of 4 June of the Consortium. The framework also provides for integrating the development of microcredentials, in accordance with the Council of the European Union Recommendation of 16 July 2022.

Who can access them

Training entities registered in the Register of training entities with permanent facilities in Catalonia may apply for the grants, as may groupings of such entities when the call so provides. The awarding procedure is processed under competitive concurrence: the instruction corresponds to the Sub-Directorate of Programmes of the Consortium and the resolution, to its Directorate.

As for the people to whom the training is addressed, the following may participate:

• Employed workers with a residence or workplace in Catalonia.
• Permanent discontinuous workers in periods of non-employment and persons with suspension or reduction of working hours due to ERTO, who are considered a priority group.
• Unemployed workers registered with the Catalan Employment Service, with a maximum of 30% of the total participants.
• Staff of public administrations, limited to 10% and only in cross-cutting actions.

Economic limits and processing

The application may not exceed 15% of the amount announced for each cross-cutting or sectoral line, and entities with no recent track record or with an awarded percentage lower than 75% in the last call are limited to €200,000. In the case of online training, the amount allocated to this modality may not exceed 90% of the requested amount.

Applications are submitted electronically through Canal Empresa, or through the EACAT platform for local bodies, after previously entering the training actions and the persons envisaged in the Conforcat application. The submission deadlines, the catalogue of training actions and the execution deadlines will be set out in the call resolutions issued by the Directorate of the Consortium, which is authorised to develop this Order.

With this regulation, the Department of Enterprise and Employment updates the framework that allows companies, workers and training entities to access lifelong learning, amid the full reform of the vocational training system. The upcoming calls will determine the specific amounts and priority areas, and interested parties may file a contentious administrative appeal before the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia within two months of publication.

Source: Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya, no. 9722, of 4 August 2026, General Provisions section, p. 1 (official reference: Order EMT/146/2026, of 30 July).