South Tyrol pays 80% of your course fees, up to EUR 3,000 a year
The Autonomous Province of Bolzano funds continuing education for people who live and work here, and courses held abroad or online are expressly included. One rule decides everything else: the application has to be filed at the latest the day before your course starts, and if an invoice has been issued or a single euro paid before that date, the whole claim is lost. The 2026 window reopens on 24 August 2026, first come, first served.
What the Weiterbildungsbeitrag is, and the rule that overrides everything else on this page
The Weiterbildungsbeitrag, in Italian the contributo per la formazione continua, is the Autonomous Province of Bolzano's own grant towards individual continuing education. It reimburses 80 percent of recognised course costs up to EUR 3,000 including VAT, per person and per calendar year, for courses of up to 500 teaching hours. Three things about it are unusually good, and they happen to be the three assumptions most people expect to fail on. First, courses are expressly fundable "in Italia e all'estero", in Italy and abroad, so a provider outside the province is admitted by name rather than merely tolerated. Second, the 2024 to 2026 guidelines adopted by the Landesregierung (Beschluss Nr. 934 of 29 October 2024) newly cover digital training formats, so live remote delivery is not a blocker. Third, South Tyrol operates no provider accreditation catalogue at all, which is why Code Labs Academy holding a German AZAV certification and no Italian regional accreditation does not disqualify an application. Now the parts that decide whether this page is worth your time. The audience is narrow: employees resident in the province who work for a private South Tyrolean employer under a collective agreement (CCNL), plus residents registered as unemployed with the provincial employment service. Public employees, freelancers, the self-employed and entrepreneurs are explicitly excluded, and that is a large share of the people who land on a page like this. If you invoice through a partita IVA, the tax deduction for the self-employed is your route instead; if you are a public employee, start with employer-funded training. And then the rule that matters more than anything else here: the application must be filed at the latest the day before the course begins, and any invoice issued or any payment made before the date of the application disqualifies the entire measure. There is no way to repair that afterwards. If you have already enrolled and paid, this scheme is closed to you for that course, which is precisely why the first step below is a phone call and not a payment. Two more honest notes. Approval is discretionary: the Koordinationsstelle für berufliche Weiterbildung assesses each course and each applicant individually, so nothing here is automatic and nobody can promise you the money. And the contribution is paid to you, the participant, not to us: you pay Code Labs Academy and claim from the province, with the supporting documentation due within 30 days of the course ending.
Employees of a private South Tyrolean employer. You need to be resident in the Province of Bolzano and employed by a private employer in the province under a collective agreement (CCNL). Part-time employment is the normal profile for this scheme, since it funds training you do alongside your job.
Or registered unemployed in the province. Residents registered as unemployed and available for work with the provincial employment service can apply on the same terms.
Explicitly excluded: public employees, freelancers, the self-employed and entrepreneurs. This is a long exclusion list and it is better to hit it in the first ten lines than after four sections. If you invoice through a partita IVA, go to the tax deduction for the self-employed, which has no accreditation gate and expressly covers online courses and courses abroad. If you are a public employee or otherwise outside the list, employer-funded training is usually the shortest route.
The course has to fit your professional profile. The application is assessed on whether the training is genuinely vocational and relevant to the work you do or want to do, which is why a dated and signed CV is part of the file. A career switch into web development, data and AI, Cybersecurity or UX/UI can be argued well, but it has to be argued, not assumed.
Our being a foreign, online school is not the obstacle people expect. There is no provider accreditation catalogue in South Tyrol, courses held abroad are fundable by name, and the 2024 to 2026 guidelines cover digital formats. Our AZAV certification carries no legal weight in Italy and the province asks for no accreditation, so treat it as a quality signal for the file, not as an approval.
Approval is never automatic. The Koordinationsstelle für berufliche Weiterbildung decides case by case, on the specific course and the specific applicant. Confirm your course with the office before you commit to anything, and read every sentence on this page as "can", not "will".
Frequently asked questions
I have already enrolled and paid. Can I still apply?
Not for that course, and we would rather tell you now than let you build a plan on it. The rule is explicit: the application has to be filed at the latest the day before the course begins, and any invoice issued or any payment made before the date of the application disqualifies the entire measure. There is no appeal against the sequence, because it is not a judgement call. What you can still do is apply for a later course, in the same calendar year or the next one, and this time make the phone call to the office your first move. If you are already committed to a start date, look at your employer, at the tax route if you invoice through a partita IVA, or at spreading the fee over interest-free monthly instalments paid directly to us.
Does a foreign, online provider really count?
On the province's own terms, yes, and this is the part that surprises people. Courses are expressly fundable in Italy and abroad, the 2024 to 2026 guidelines adopted by the Landesregierung newly cover digital training formats, and South Tyrol runs no provider accreditation catalogue, so there is no list Code Labs Academy has to be on. What that does not give you is certainty. The Koordinationsstelle für berufliche Weiterbildung approves each course individually and the office has the final word, so the honest instruction is the same one as in step 1: call 0471 416919 or 0471 416930, describe your exact course, and get their read before you commit. Our AZAV certification is German and buys nothing legally in Italy. It is worth attaching to the file as evidence of what kind of school this is, and nothing more than that.
When can I apply in 2026?
The window reopens on 24 August 2026. The earlier 2026 round closed on 29 May 2026, and in practice the funds were already exhausted before that deadline arrived, which tells you everything about how this scheme behaves: it is first come, first served and the calendar is only half the story. Have the CV, the ID copy, the course documentation and the marca da bollo ready before the window opens rather than after, and remember that your course also has to start after the application date. We can schedule a start date around your application rather than the other way round.
How much will I actually get on a bootcamp?
At most EUR 3,000 including VAT in a calendar year, and no more than 80 percent of recognised costs. Our bootcamps run from EUR 5,000 to EUR 17,000 depending on programme and format, so realistically that is somewhere between about 18 and 60 percent of the fee, and you should assume the rest is on you. The 500 teaching hour ceiling is the second thing to check, because not every format fits under it. If the gap is the problem rather than the eligibility, the shorter self-paced courses with regular instructor meetings are worth a look: they cost considerably less, so a fixed EUR 3,000 contribution covers a far larger share and can cover a course outright. Prices and the line-up change every week, so check the courses page for what is on sale now.
What if my application is refused?
Ask the office for the reason, because the common ones point in different directions. If it is the course itself, a different format or a shorter programme with fewer teaching hours may be assessed differently. If it is your status, this fund is simply not for you and no amount of rework changes that. If it is the budget, the answer is timing rather than argument. Either way the course stays reachable without the province: your employer can fund it directly and normally deducts the cost as a business expense, a partita IVA can deduct it personally, and we offer interest-free monthly instalments of up to 60 payments made directly to Code Labs Academy, a discount for paying upfront, and the discounts already listed on the site. The decision belongs to the Koordinationsstelle, and approval is never automatic for anyone.
I am a freelancer, or a public employee. Is there anything for me?
Not this. Public employees, freelancers, the self-employed and entrepreneurs are explicitly outside the Weiterbildungsbeitrag, which is aimed at private-sector employees in the province and at people registered unemployed there. If you invoice through a partita IVA and are taxed on actual income, the full deduction of training costs for the self-employed is genuinely open, has no accreditation requirement and expressly covers online courses and courses held abroad, which makes it the stronger route for you anyway. Public employees and everyone else should start with employer-funded training: it needs no authority's approval, only a budget holder's.
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