Cleaning certificate Spain: SSCM0108 course, hours and who can join

In short: if you are looking for the cleaning certificate Spain recognises for buildings and premises, it is SSCM0108, "Limpieza de superficies y mobiliario en edificios y locales": level 1, 230 hours, part of them training in a company. Courses for unemployed people are run by each autonomous community's employment service, and to join you need to be registered as a job seeker (demandante de empleo); a non-EU foreigner also needs a recognised right to work. For open spaces and industrial facilities there is SEAG0209 (210 hours).

Which cleaning certificates exist. The three below are level 1; Royal Decree 1376/2008 also has "Gestión de pisos y limpieza de alojamientos" (housekeeping and cleaning management in accommodation), at level 3. Today they are called certificados profesionales and the old ones keep their value (see what a professional certificate is):

• SSCM0108, Cleaning of surfaces and furniture in buildings and premises: 230 hours. Modules: cleaning, treatment and maintenance of floors, walls and ceilings (30 h), cleaning of interior furniture (30 h), window cleaning (30 h), cleaning techniques and procedures with machinery (60 h) and non-employment work placement in a company (80 h). Annex I of Royal Decree 1378/2009 places the work in buildings, premises, health centres or institutions, industries, means of transport and street furniture. Jobs it lists: general cleaning staff, specialist cleaning labourer and window cleaner. It replaced the old certificate "Experto en limpieza de inmuebles" (Royal Decree 1596/1997), which the royal decree itself declares equivalent.
• SEAG0209, Cleaning of open spaces and industrial facilities: 210 hours, in the Security and environment family (Royal Decree 720/2011). Modules: cleaning of open spaces (50 h), cleaning of industrial facilities and equipment (80 h) and work placement (80 h). It focuses on street and industrial cleaning, with vehicles under 3500 kilos. Jobs: street sweeper and street cleaning operative.
• HOTA0108, Basic housekeeping operations in accommodation: 380 hours (cleaning hotel rooms, the camarera de pisos job). Modules and jobs in free hospitality courses with a certificate.

In the royal decrees we reviewed there is no specific hospital cleaning certificate; the scope of SSCM0108 includes health centres and institutions.

What you get. You receive the certificate or cumulative partial accreditations (art. 7 of Royal Decree 694/2017), and the competent administration issues it, not the training centre. The royal decree states that the certificate is official and valid across Spain but does not regulate the exercise of the profession: it shows what you can do, it is not a licence to work. Finishing a course does not mean you get a job.

Who can enrol. Free courses for unemployed people ask you to be registered as a job seeker (art. 5 of Royal Decree 694/2017). To register, Royal Decree 438/2024 (art. 7) asks you to be over 16, have a DNI or NIE and live in a municipality of the region. If you are not from the EU, you also need a recognised right of access to the labour market, shown with a document that authorises it (art. 9). Level 1 asks for no prior studies, only that you can communicate well enough to learn (art. 75 of Royal Decree 659/2023). Depending on your situation:

• Residence with work authorisation: you meet the requirement. Register as a job seeker.
• Arraigo: the arraigo authorisation includes work authorisation (art. 131 of Royal Decree 1155/2024); with arraigo socioformativo, a maximum of 30 hours a week as an employee. Practice varies between employment offices: ask which document they want for registration.
• Temporary protection (Ukraine): the resolution includes residence and work authorisation (art. 5.1 of Order PCM/169/2022).
• International protection applicant (asylum): you may work six months after applying if the application was admitted for processing, shown by the "autoriza a trabajar" entry on your document (fourteenth additional provision of Royal Decree 1155/2024). Until then you do not have the recognised right to work that registration requires.
• No work authorisation: under the registration rule, you cannot enrol in these courses. With a regularisation application or another authorisation still pending, we have not found a clear official rule: ask the employment service. Some NGOs run their own training with other requirements; see courses and training to improve your employability.

More on the registration procedure in free SEPE courses for unemployed people.

If you have already worked in cleaning. You can ask for your experience to be recognised through the official accreditation procedure, without taking the certificate course. It is open permanently and requires a residence, or residence-and-work, authorisation in force, being 18 and, at level 1, showing two years and 1000 hours of work in the last 15 years (or 200 hours of related training in the last 10). It is proven with a certificate from the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social and the contract or a company certificate (art. 177). If you are over 25 and cannot document it, you can ask for provisional registration with other evidence admitted in law; the adviser or the commission decides. If your experience is from another country, ask your region which proof it accepts (arts. 175 to 188 of Royal Decree 659/2023; details in what a professional certificate is).

How to find the course. The SEPE gathers each region's search tool on a map of training offers and publishes the catalogue of training specialities, which can be filtered. Search for the certificate name in Spanish, for example "limpieza de superficies y mobiliario en edificios y locales". Some search tools: Community of Madrid, Andalusia (SAE), Catalonia (Servei d'Ocupació) and Valencian Community (Labora), which has a section on professional certificates. Each region sets its own deadlines, places and way to apply. Labora says on its employment training page that students do not pay for the training and may receive aid for attending; check in your region's call that there is no enrolment fee or tasa. Free courses for unemployed people can also be taught by accredited or registered private training centres with public funding (art. 26 of Royal Decree 694/2017). Outside those calls, a private centre can also offer these certificates: ask whether it charges and check that it is authorised by the competent administration (art. 77.2 of Royal Decree 659/2023).

Work placement. In the 2009 text, SSCM0108 includes an 80-hour module of non-employment work placement in a company, under an agreement between the centre and the company (art. 5 of Royal Decree 1378/2009). Royal Decree 659/2023 provides for that module to be replaced by training in a company (first transitional provision, paragraph 3). At level 1, under the general regime, that part is 20 % of the total length (art. 71), and the certificate's total hours do not change. Some calls still speak of prácticas no laborales: check how many hours yours sets. If you have at least six months of work experience that matches what you study, you can be exempted from that part, fully or partly (art. 131 of Royal Decree 659/2023). The competent administration decides at the centre's request (art. 73). Ask the centre which documents they want.

Does it count for arraigo socioformativo? It can. Article 127.d of Royal Decree 1155/2024 accepts the full grade C professional certificate and, for this arraigo, level 1 as well, which is the level of SSCM0108, SEAG0209 and HOTA0108. It must be the whole certificate (not a single module), at an authorised centre with an authorised training action, and with at least 50 % of the classes in person (art. 52.1.e 5.º). A free course is not enough on its own. The other arraigo requirements (two years in Spain, social integration report) are in arraigo socioformativo and which training counts is in courses for arraigo socioformativo. Under instruction SEM 1/2025, a course "promoted by the public employment service" is taken after you hold the authorisation, the NIE and the job seeker registration.

Documents

• ID document with NIE (or DNI): required to register as a job seeker.
• If you are not from the EU, the document that authorises the right of access to the labour market (art. 9 of Royal Decree 438/2024).
• Registration as a job seeker with your region's employment service (you get a registration document, the DARDE).
• Whatever each call asks for (the list varies): check the call.

Steps:

1. Check your requirements: NIE or TIE and, if you are not from the EU, the right to work.
2. Register as a job seeker with your region's employment service.
3. Look for the certificate (SSCM0108 or another) in the SEPE catalogue and check your region's search tool for an open call.
4. Apply for a place the way the call says and check that no enrolment fee or tasa is charged.
5. Do the course and the work placement, and ask the competent administration for your certificate.

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Informational only; check the official source and a professional for your specific case.