Reskill while you keep your job, funded through your employer

No, and any page that tells you otherwise is wrong. § 82 SGB III is an employer instrument: the company applies to the Arbeitgeber-Service for its own employee, and the money is paid to the company as a reimbursement of its costs. There is no individual application form and no way to bypass this step. If your employer will not take part, the realistic alternatives are direct employer funding, self-funding with interest-free instalments paid to Code Labs Academy or our upfront-payment discount, or, if you become unemployed or your job is at risk, a Bildungsgutschein under § 81 SGB III, which you do apply for yourself.

Refusals usually come down to the measure or the paperwork rather than the person: the training was filed too late, it was judged to be short-term job-specific adaptation, or the training plan did not show what the new skills are for. Ask the Arbeitgeber-Service for the reasons, fix that specific point and refile in good time for a later intake. The Bundesagentur has no limit on how often a company may apply, and it decides each case on its merits. In the meantime the course can still go ahead: employer-paid training is tax-free for you under § 3 Nr. 19 EStG, and we offer interest-free monthly instalments paid directly to us as well as a discount for paying upfront.

Yes on both counts. Online delivery is permitted for AZAV-approved measures, and Code Labs Academy holds AZAV Träger- und Maßnahmenzulassung as a German provider. We already teach employees whose courses are funded under the Qualifizierungschancengesetz. Our classes are live and instructor-led at fixed times rather than self-paced videos, and they run well beyond the 120-hour minimum, which are the two things the Bundesagentur checks about the measure itself.

Both are possible, and the choice affects the money. Our part-time bootcamps are designed for people in full-time work, with live sessions outside core hours. In that setup the company is reimbursed for the course fee, but there is little or no working time released, so the wage subsidy is small or does not apply. If your employer releases you during working hours, the wage subsidy becomes relevant: since the Bundesagentur's guidance of 1 January 2026 it is calculated strictly on the working time actually lost, so the released hours need to be documented.

That is a fair question, and it is one for your own numbers rather than ours. On a bootcamp between EUR 5,000 and EUR 17,000, the reimbursement is EUR 1,250 to EUR 4,250, or 30% where a collective or works agreement on further training applies. On top of that comes the wage subsidy for released working time and the fact that the remaining cost is a deductible business expense. The application itself is one conversation with the Arbeitgeber-Service plus a training plan, and we supply the provider certification, the course description and the hours for it.

No. They are two different instruments and it is worth not mixing them up. Under the Qualifizierungschancengesetz (§ 82 SGB III), the Bundesagentur reimburses part or all of the course costs and can add a wage subsidy. Qualifizierungsgeld (§ 82a SGB III) works the other way round: the employer pays the course costs and the Bundesagentur pays 60% of the net wage difference, 67% for employees with children, while staff train instead of working. Qualifizierungsgeld is aimed at companies undergoing structural change, and it requires a works or collective agreement plus a substantial share of the workforce needing retraining. For a single employee moving into tech, § 82 is normally the relevant route.