Free courses for immigrants in Spain: by job, region and status

In short: the free courses for immigrants in Spain that prepare you for work are run by the SEPE (the state public employment service) and by the employment service of each autonomous community. To enrol you must be registered as a job seeker (demandante de empleo) and, if you are not from the EU, have the right to work. This card is a map: choose by job, by region or by your situation and follow the link to the detailed card.

By job

• Care work. There are two official care certificates at level 2: care for people at home and care for dependent people in institutions. How to take them for free and how to have your experience accredited: free care worker course and certificate.
• Forklift. According to the INSST (the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work), there is no official or mandatory forklift card, and the employer decides which training it accepts. Which training gives employers more confidence and where to find a free course: free forklift course.
• Hospitality. Official level 1 certificates for kitchen, restaurant and bar, and housekeeping in accommodation: free hospitality courses with a certificate.
• Cleaning. An official level 1 certificate for cleaning surfaces and furniture in buildings and premises: cleaning certificate.
• What a professional certificate is. Until 2023 it was called certificado de profesionalidad: what a professional certificate is.
• You already have experience. To have what you can do recognised without taking the whole course, see accreditation of work experience. A non-EU foreigner needs a residence, or residence-and-work, authorisation in force.

By region

Each region runs its own courses and sets its own deadlines, places and way to apply. These cards say where to look, with no call dates:

• Comunitat Valenciana (LABORA)
• Andalusia (SAE)
• Community of Madrid
• Catalonia (SOC)
• Other regions. The SEPE gathers each region's course search on its map of regional training offers. For example: the Canary Islands, the Region of Murcia (section Busco formación) and the Balearic Islands.

By your situation

If you are looking for free courses for foreigners, your administrative situation decides access:

• Residence and work authorisation. You can register as a job seeker, which is the door to these courses. If you are not from the EU, you provide the document proving your right to work (arts. 7.1.d and 9.1.b of Royal Decree 438/2024). How to do it: register as a job seeker in Spain as a foreigner.
• Temporary protection (Ukraine). The resolution includes the residence and work authorisation (art. 5.1 of Order PCM/169/2022), so in principle you can register.
• Asylum applicant. You can work 6 months after applying, if the claim was admitted for processing (additional provision 14 of Royal Decree 1155/2024). Until then the SEPE courses are not open to you.
• No work authorisation. The SEPE and regional courses are closed. What does exist (CEPA, NGO programmes, socioformativo arraigo training): free courses for immigrants without papers. If your regularisation or another permit application is in process, ask your employment service: we found no clear official rule.
• General requirements, what you get at the end and what happens if you receive unemployment benefit: free SEPE courses for unemployed people.

For your papers: socioformativo arraigo and Spanish

• Which training counts under Annex II of Instruction SEM 1/2025 and how to check the centre: courses for socioformativo arraigo. Courses promoted by the employment service count only for occupations in the hard-to-fill catalogue (catálogo de difícil cobertura) and come after you have the arraigo granted, a NIE and your registration as «demandante de servicios previos al empleo». Also, you cannot hold this arraigo more than once in 3 years (paragraph QUINTA).
• Free Spanish: free Spanish classes for foreigners. Spanish courses are not in Annex II, except for people with temporary protection from Ukraine who are already studying and cannot switch to a residence-and-work permit (Instruction SEM 2/2026). The card on courses for arraigo explains it.

Online courses

Platforms such as Alison, Coursera, edX or Google Actívate offer open online courses, each with its own certificate. They help you add skills to your CV, but they are not regulated training or a professional certificate. They do not count for socioformativo arraigo and do not open registration with the SEPE. Check the cost of each course: the certificate may be paid.

🎓 To add skills to your CV, Alison offers online courses with their own certificate. It is not a certificado de profesionalidad and does not count for arraigo (🤝 our partner).

How to look for a free course

1. Register as a job seeker with the employment service of your region.
2. Look in your region's course search (the SEPE gathers them on a map) or look up the certificate by name in the SEPE Catalogue of Training Specialities.
3. Check in the call that there is no enrolment fee or tasa and how to apply for a place. The offer changes, and there may be no course in your province right now.

Official source: SEPE: training offer of the autonomous communities.

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