Free courses Madrid unemployed: who can join and how to apply

In short: the free courses Madrid offers to unemployed people are searched in the Community of Madrid's course finder, and your employment office does the pre-selection. You must live in the Community of Madrid and be registered there as a job seeker (demandante de empleo). If you are a non-EU foreigner, that registration requires a document recognising your right to work: without it, these courses are not open to you. In the city of Madrid there are also municipal offices for immigrants that give guidance at no cost.

What is on offer. The Community of Madrid's page on training for employment speaks of its whole free training offer for employment and gathers it in the course finder. You can filter by target group, professional family or town. The finder can be searched without logging in; to ask for pre-enrolment you have to log in. The training offer page, updated on 23 September 2026, describes these lines, which are in person, online or blended depending on the course:

• Courses for unemployed people leading to a professional certificate or a training specialty. Unemployed people have priority, and a call may reserve a percentage of places for people who work. You cannot take two subsidised training actions of the Consejería de Economía, Hacienda y Empleo at the same time.
• Courses with a hiring commitment: the company commits to hiring at least 40 % of those who finish. They are only for unemployed people, not for those who work.
• Five of the Community's own centres (Centros Madrileños de Innovación y Capacitación para el Empleo): information technology, administration and finance, refrigeration and air conditioning, electricity, electronics and aeronautics, and building and civil works. They may ask for a knowledge test, and job seekers have priority.
• Pathway for young people aged 16 to 30 and people over 45: a full certificate with work placements extended to 500 hours and a grant for each day of effective attendance, if you meet the conditions on the page.
• Free online training: the page highlights TalentIA (artificial intelligence) and Turismo Digital (tourism professionals). We have not reviewed their requirements.

Cost and aid. The official page presents this offer as free; check in the course's page that there is no enrolment fee. While you take a publicly funded course you can apply for aid separately:

• Transport aid: free recharges of the public transport card for registered unemployed people taking an in-person course of at least 100 hours.
• Childcare and family-care aid: 14 euros for each day you attend if you look after children under 12 or dependent relatives. Your income when the course starts must not exceed 75 % of the IPREM, the public income indicator used as a reference for many aids. You submit two applications: one when the theory part ends and another for the work placements.

Who can join, by your situation. The finder and the employment office ask for the same thing: live in the Community of Madrid and register as a job seeker. How to do it in general is in registering as a job seeker as a foreigner. What changes is the document that proves your right to work:

• You live in Spain with a work authorisation: yes. The employment office page asks non-EU workers for recognised access to the labour market, and the national rule requires you to present the document that authorises it (arts. 7.1.d and 9.1.b of Royal Decree 438/2024).
• You have temporary protection (for example, Ukrainians): yes. The decision that grants it includes the residence and work authorisation (art. 5.1 of Order PCM/169/2022). The page of the plan for people displaced from Ukraine says the employment offices give access to Spanish courses, digital skills or training for employment, and asks for the temporary protection decision that includes the work permit. Card: how to apply for temporary protection.
• You are an asylum seeker: not at first. You may work 6 months after the date of your application if it was admitted for processing and is still unresolved for reasons not your fault. It is shown by the entry «autoriza a trabajar» (additional provision 14 of Royal Decree 1155/2024). Card: how to claim asylum.
• You are in the extraordinary regularisation (RD 316/2026): the Madrid employment office page carries a notice for people in a regularisation process, with a specific appointment, «Inscripción Demanda Regularización Extraordinaria de Extranjería», which the page says you must request. The documents they ask for are on that page. Which courses you can apply for with that registration is not explained on the pages reviewed: ask your office.
• You have no work authorisation: no to these courses. What does exist (CEPA, NGOs, online courses) is in free courses without papers.
• You are applying for or hold arraigo socioformativo: a course being free does not make it valid for this arraigo. The course promoted by the employment service can only start once you hold the granted arraigo and the NIE, are registered as a «demandante de servicios previos al empleo» (the job-seeker category for pre-employment services) and the training action is scheduled and authorised. To apply for the arraigo, an admission request for a training in Annex II is enough, and you cannot hold this arraigo more than once in 3 years (fifth instruction of Instrucciones SEM 1/2025). In the Community of Madrid we have not found an official page explaining how that commitment to the employment service is put into practice; Catalonia's SOC does, in free SOC courses. General detail in courses for arraigo socioformativo.

How to register as a job seeker in Madrid. According to the employment office page, you can do it in person with an appointment, with a valid DNI or NIE and, if you have them, qualifications, professional certificates or language certificates. You can also do it online in the Virtual Employment Office, with a recognised electronic signature system (see Cl@ve and the electronic certificate). The appointment page says the first registration is not handled in a phone appointment: if you have never been registered, ask for an in-person appointment. Each office's practice may vary: confirm which document they accept.

Municipal offices for immigrants (city of Madrid). The Madrid City Council, through its Directorate General for Social Inclusion and Development Cooperation, has two Municipal Information, Guidance and Support Offices for the integration of the immigrant population: the North Office and the South Office. Their website speaks of free and open access, labour, social and legal advice, a Spanish classroom and a resource guide of more than 70 pages. They can guide you on where to train. We have not confirmed that they offer specific courses: check their programme.

An NGO example. In March 2023, CEAR Madrid presented pathways with free training for non-EU migrants with a residence and work permit, or asylum seekers with a work permit, registered in Madrid and unemployed. It is an example of what these programmes tend to ask for, not a current offer.

Courses by trade and other routes. If you already know which job you want, see the guides by profession: social and health care, forklift operator, hospitality and cleaning. If you have worked in a trade for years and have no qualification, see accrediting skills through work experience. For the wider picture there are free SEPE courses for unemployed people and courses and training to improve your employability. If you first need to improve your Spanish, see free Spanish classes.

Documents

• Valid ID document with NIE (or DNI): the employment office asks for it when you register.
• If you are not from the EU, the document that proves your right to work: TIE with a work authorisation, the temporary protection decision, or the asylum applicant document with the entry «autoriza a trabajar». Confirm which one your office accepts.
• Qualifications, professional certificates or language certificates, if you have them.
• For the transport and childcare aids, whatever each call asks for.
• Whatever each course asks for: the list varies, check the course's page.

Steps:

1. Check that you live in the Community of Madrid and that you have a NIE or DNI and, if you are not from the EU, the right to work.
2. Register as a job seeker: in-person appointment at an employment office, or the Virtual Employment Office with an electronic signature.
3. Find the course in the Community of Madrid's course finder.
4. Ask for pre-enrolment in the finder; your employment office does the pre-selection.
5. Look at the aids: transport aid if the course is in person and lasts at least 100 hours (you apply within 5 working days of starting), and childcare and family-care aid if you look after children under 12 or dependent relatives.
6. When you finish, ask for your professional certificate, diploma or attendance certificate.

🎓 Want to add skills to your CV while you wait for a place? Alison offers online courses with its own certificate. It is not a certificado de profesionalidad and does not count for arraigo (🤝 our partner).

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