Cyprus

All companies in Cyprus, irrespective of their economic sector, are obliged to contribute a fixed share of their payroll costs (0.5%) to the HRDA Training Fund. In return, they may receive grants in the form of subsidies for approved training activities, such as (i) Single company Training programmes in Cyprus, and (ii) Single company training programmes abroad. These company grants are covered entirely by national sources. The actual amount of subsidy is not fixed and depends on a number of parameters whether the training is carried out in Cyprus or abroad. Co-fuding can cover 80% of eligible costs. The instrument represents a specific funding intervention whereby companies receive grants to cover part of their training costs for local and overseas VET programmes, as well as for specific thematic funding programmes targeted towards unemployed individuals.

The payback clause is not a primary type of financial instrument in Cyprus, hence it does not exist as an "official instrument or scheme". In the rare cases where a payback clause is implemented, it is governed by individual agreements, employment or otherwise, between employer and employee. There is no national law or national collective agreement to govern it. Training and training costs repayment may be scantly referred to in some sectoral collective agreements without any details as to how it should be implemented. The amount of money to be paid back and the terms of repayment are mutually agreed upon between employer and employee prior to the provision of training. Almost in all cases, payback refers to scholarships where the training costs are rather high and not to cases of normal training activities (VET) of short duration where the costs per person are much lower.

Companies receive a wage subsidy for employing newly graduated, inexperienced recruits to fill in critical vacancies. The graduates undergo a 6-month on-the-job training programme which is monitored by the HRDA. The enterprises must retain the graduates for a further 2 months-period before they can apply for subsidy (from HRDA). The subsidy covers the 6-month period of training. The employer is obliged to pay the graduate a minimum gross monthly salary of EUR 950. In return, the employer receives from HRDA, at the end of the eight (8) month retainment period, up to EUR 1 100 monthly subsidies for the six months duration of the training. The subsidy/grant is paid by HRDA entirely from its own HRDA fund (no co-funding from any source). The exact amount of subsidy can reach up to 80% of eligible costs which cover the graduate's and the supervisor's salary costs and any other training-related expenses. Graduates under the age of 30 who completed successfully a course of at least 3 years of study in a tertiary education establishment are eligible to participate in the programme provided they do not possess working experience of more than 8 months in the field of the prospective job. Graduates can only participate in the programme once. There are limits to the number of participants/per year in the scheme according to the size of the companies.

Training leave or more specific paid training leave is universally accepted as the normal practice for the cases where the employer asks employees to participate in a training activity. This is irrespective of whether or not there is a relevant specific reference in the employment contract or (a brief mention) in the sectoral collective agreement. The employer then covers all the training expenses because it is generally accepted that it is the employer that will ultimately benefit from the additional knowledge and skills that the employees will acquire through the training process. In the case where the employee asks to participate in a training programme, for his/her own personal benefit, then he/she undertakes to pay all training expenses and lose wages for the duration of the programme (unpaid training leave). Unpaid leave is more common in cases where the employee wishes to obtain a higher tertiary education qualification or attend a scholarship. Paid training leave covers by far the large majority of training leave cases. In some sectors, collective agreements may mention superficially the training leave as a means for upgrading the skills and knowledge of the employees. These agreements never enter into a detailed description of the financial aspect of it since there is no fund to cover training leave, other than the employer himself/herself.