Vocational training - Continuing training

Portuguese workers with an open-ended contract are entitled to a minimum of 40 hours of continuing training each year. Companies do need to provide 40 hours of certified training per worker in each civil year to at least 10% of the company's employees. In the case of workers with contracts for a specific period of time, the law is applied only when the contracts have more than 3 months and the number of foreseen training hours is aligned with the duration of the contract. The training can be of any type, but it has to be provided either by the employer, by a certified training entity, or by any training institution recognised by the State as a training provider under the National Qualification System. The employer covers the costs of workers' time spent in training and the costs of training provided at employers' initiatives. For this purpose, employers can benefit from existing public support measures or use their own funding. Workers usually cover the costs of training (fees, transport, etc.) attended at their own initiative. The State is responsible for settling the legislation related to the training leave, defining the minimum requirements to be accomplished by the companies (specified in the Labour Code Law n. 7/2009 and following amendments), as well as for monitoring the accomplishment of the legislation by companies.