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Glossary

Courses and training while unemployed

If you would like to take a course while receiving benefits, you must inform CA. You can inform CA by submitting a course form. We will then decide whether you are eligible for benefits while taking the course, and inform you of our decision.

You can attend courses of less than 20 hours a week if the course you have chosen is not a certified full-time study programme under the state educational grant (SU) scheme. If the course can also be attended as part of a certified study programme under the state educational grant scheme, you will not be entitled to benefits while attending the course.

It is a condition that the prescribed duration of the course is less than 20 hours a week. This means that you are not allowed to simply choose to attend less hours than those prescribed.

For remote and online courses, we will base our decision on the information provided by the place of study as to the prescribed number of hours for the course if it had been a traditional teaching course.

For example, this means that you are not entitled to attend a course and receive benefits under this rule if you attend an open university course. This is because the subjects that are available at open university form part of certified university programmes under the state educational grant scheme. Instead, a special rule applies for education for adults (see below).

Below, you can see examples of study programmes which are not certified under the state educational grant scheme, but where you will be eligible for benefits because you’ll not receive the state educational grant:

  • Evening Bachelor of Commerce programme (HD)
  • MBA
  • MPA
  • Estate agent programme
  • Merit teacher programme

If you attend a vocational training programme, you are not entitled to benefits.

You may attend an adult education programme if it relates to your previous education or training or your field of work and if you have already completed a vocational training programme of a duration of 18 months or more. This will allow you to keep up to date in your field and maintain your professional qualifications.

It is not possible to take courses which may form part of an entirely new educational programme.

You are only entitled to participate in the educational programme until you have the right and duty to participate in an activation programme.

For each week, the maximum number of tuition hours is 6 hours. If the 6 hours are exceeded, you must be able to demonstrate that tuition on a per week basis does not correspond to more than one-third of a full-year equivalent of studying. If, for example, a full-year equivalent corresponds to 24 hours a week, you may have a maximum of 8 tuition hours each week.

At the place of study, you can find out how much a full-year equivalent is.

Please note: The rule about 6 hours or one-third of a full-year equivalent is only relevant if the study programme is certified under the state educational grant scheme or if the course or educational programme also forms part of an educational programme certified under the state educational grant scheme.

If the adult education programme is not part of an educational programme certified under the state educational grant scheme, you can attend the programme so long as it involves less than 20 tuition hours per week.

Job-related training is a programme for you if you are either:

  • unskilled
  • skilled
  • or have short-term further education (i.e. from a business or vocational academy) and have also completed a vocational training programme. 

This means that any application for job-related courses will not be approved if your level of education is higher than described above. This applies even if you have not made use of your training for work purposes. See also other training programmes in the section below headed "Training according to the regional education fund". 

You can apply for benefits while attending 6 weeks of training. It is a requirement that the training programme is approved on the nationwide positive list. The list shows approved courses of up to 6 weeks as well as a special (and much shorter) positive list of courses of more than 6 weeks.

Courses of more than 6 weeks are subject to the approval of the Jobcenter. 

In order for us to approve that you receive benefits during 6 weeks of job-related training, you must be able to tick off the following criteria: 

  • You have been unemployed for a total of at least 5 weeks before the start of the course. You can attend some of the courses on the nationwide positive list from the first day of unemployment. These courses will be marked on the list.
  • You do not have a part-time job.
  • You have registered with the Jobcenter as a jobseeker. 

How to apply

Start by contacting the course provider who may guide you about your options in each case.

When you have found the course you want to take, you must, together with the course provider, fill in and submit application form (AR 237) to us.

During the course

While attending the course, you must still be registered as unemployed at jobnet.dk. You must also be available for any work facilitated by the Jobcenter or CA, but you are not required to search for jobs and attend meetings with us or the Jobcenter.

If we approve your course, you will receive benefits while attending the course. You may also apply for allowance for travelling expenses.

If you are not eligible to apply for 6 weeks of job-related training from the nationwide positive list because of your level of education, you can apply for training through the regional education fund.

The purpose of the regional education fund is to enable a greater number of benefits claimants to take short-term vocational courses specifically within the areas where job openings are expected within the next six months. The programmes for which applications are accepted are set out in the regional positive list, which is available at www.star.dk.

Only your Jobcenter can approve the short-term vocational training programmes under a regional education fund. Therefore, you should contact your Jobcenter to learn more about the application process.

Vocational courses

You can participate full time for the first 2 weeks of a course that gives you a tighter connection to the labour market. The course must be organised by your Jobcenter, your trade union or by CA.

If the course takes more than 2 weeks, you are entitled to benefits for the length of the course if the timeframe of the course after the first 2 weeks is less than 20 hours a week.

Other training

If you are below the age of 25 and have not been unemployed for more than 6 months, you can also take:

  • class 8, 9 or 10 of the Danish municipal primary and lower secondary school (Folkeskole) regardless of the number of weekly periods
  • single subjects at the Higher Preparatory Course (HF), the Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX), the Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX) and adult upper-secondary level course less than 20 hours a week
  • programmes at colleges, day high schools or production schools

You will be eligible for benefits at half the maximum rate. After six months – or when you turn 25 – you are no longer eligible for benefits during the course programme.