Funding further training: employers, RAV, cantons, taxes

Anyone planning further training should check in this order:

1. Employer: contribution or full coverage, often with a retention clause.
2. Unemployment insurance (RAV): labour-market measures and training contributions when unemployment is imminent or exists.
3. Canton and foundations: scholarships, loans, dedicated foundations for certain professional groups.
4. Taxes: deduction of training costs from taxable income.

Important: most contributions are tied to conditions – to a link with your current activity, to a recognised institution or to a specific income threshold.

Employers often pay when the training is necessary for the current or a clearly foreseeable function. Negotiate in writing:

• What is covered: course costs, exam fees, travel and material costs, working time?
• Repayment clause: permissible if it is reasonable – a staggered arrangement over two to three years is customary (100 % in the first year, 50 % in the second).
• Retention: a clause binding you for several years is only tenable if it remains proportionate.

Check the clause before you sign: if the employer terminates the contract, repayment generally must not apply.

In the case of unemployment or imminent unemployment, unemployment insurance can co-finance further training – within the framework of labour-market measures. The conditions are usually:

• The training demonstrably improves your placement prospects.
• It is agreed with the RAV adviser and approved before it begins.
• The institution is recognised (often eduQua-certified).

Important: obtain approval before registering. Retroactive applications are usually rejected. If you are still employed, raise the topic early with your employer and the RAV adviser.

Scholarships are regulated at cantonal level in Switzerland and primarily intended for education, not for any further training. Even so, checking is worthwhile:

• Cantonal scholarship offices: support for educational programmes, partly also for higher vocational education.
• Foundations: many cantons and professional associations have foundations for further training in specific industries.
• Employer associations and trade unions: education funds that support members.

Application deadlines are often rigid and fall before the course starts – a look at the website of the scholarship office in your canton of residence clarifies this quickly.

Training costs are tax-deductible if they are professionally necessary – that is, if they serve to maintain or improve your earning capacity in the profession you learned or practise.

• Deductible: specialist courses, certificates, specialist literature, professional association fees, travel costs to courses.
• Not deductible: leisure courses, hobbies, general education courses without professional relevance.
• Evidence: keep invoices and course confirmations – in case of a query, provability decides.

In the case of a career change the link to the new profession is contested; in that case document the professional necessity carefully.

Further training only has an effect in the dossier if it is linked to a goal. Two formulations compared:

Weak: «CAS Project Management, 2025.»
Strong: «CAS Project Management (2025): leading three IT migration projects, HERMES methodology.»

• Order: relevance before completeness – place the training directly under the matching position or in the competence block.
• Training in progress: «in training, completion 2027» is an honest entry and shows planning.
• In the interview: do not list the course contents but describe the application in everyday work.

Whether the employer pays for professional development rarely depends on the budget but on the quality of the request. Five points belong in the request – discussed verbally, followed up in writing:

1. Benefit for the company. Which task will be done better or faster afterwards? A formulation referring to a concrete project is stronger than a general gain in competence.
2. Cost and time. Course costs, examination fees, travel costs and the amount of working time that is lost.
3. Schedule. Start, duration, examination date – and how the work is distributed during that time.
4. Commitment. Willingness to agree to a stay-on arrangement, with a reasonable duration.
5. Alternative. Think along a cheaper or shorter variant. Whoever presents two options gets a yes considerably more often than with a single one.

On the repayment clause: it is permissible but must be reasonable. A commitment of several years for a three-day course does not stand up to review; the repayment should also decrease in stages over time.