Greece

The Greek Manpower Organisation (OAED) provides every company in the private and public sectors the possibility to train their staff, taking advantage of the Account for Employment and Vocational Training (LAEK). Employers are obliged by law to contribute a proportion of the payroll (0.24% since July 2014) to the fund. The funds are then used to subsidize training costs of companies. Companies can receive 100% of their contributions back to cover their training costs. The funds for refunding employers' training costs are collected together with contributions for covering costs of initial vocational education and training and training of the unemployed, yet are treated as separate funding streams. The objective of the in-company training programmes covered by the fund is to train employees in subjects that respond to the needs of the company and increase the productivity of their employees. Staff eligible for the training is those insured with the Greek Social Security Institute (IKA) and belonging to one of the insurance branches of OAED. No preferential treatment is applied.

Undergraduate students have the right to receive an interest-free student loan from credit institutions of the Greek State. The eligibility criteria for receiving the loan include the academic performance of the student and their personal or family socioeconomic conditions. There is no age limit, nor are there specific rules applicable to all higher education institutions. Higher education institutions are autonomous and each university or even department within universities can decide if and how to implement aspects of it. In addition, an earlier law (Law 2413/1996) foresees that Greek students subscribed to post-graduate and doctoral studies in Greek Universities have the right to interest-free student loans. However, none of the legislation has been implemented in practice. A more recent law (Law 4701/2020) which foresees "easy loans" of up to EUR 25 000 for a range of target groups, including students, has not been implemented yet either.

In Greece, the applicable laws set no explicit limitations to a payback clause, that is an agreement between employer and employee on the payback of training costs covered by the employer in case of voluntary termination of the employment by the employee. The parties can freely agree on any component of the payback clause. Agreements deemed unfair, however, can be challenged in the Labour Courts. Overall, the application of payback clauses for training costs is perceived as of limited importance within the overall co-funding arrangements for CVT.