Free forklift licence and other free training for machine operators in Portugal: IEFP, funded courses, allowances and what employers must pay (2026)

In short: you can get a «forklift licence» for free in Portugal. Free courses are certified modular training (25 or 50-hour units from the national catalogue), run by IEFP (the public employment and training service), sector centres such as CICCOPN and private providers funded by Pessoas 2030 (mainly in the North, Centre and Alentejo). They are open to adults aged 18 or over, employed or unemployed. Unemployed people who don't receive unemployment benefit can get a grant of up to €268.57 a month, plus €6.15 a day for meals. The catch: courses last 25–100 hours, have fixed dates and can be cancelled if fewer than 15 people sign up. If you already work, remember that safety training for the machine you use is paid by your employer, and you're entitled to 40 hours of training a year.

There is no official forklift licence in Portugal: the law requires a «properly qualified» operator, which you prove with a training certificate. We explain this in our guide to the forklift and aerial platform licence.

How free courses work

Free machine operator courses are short training units (UFCDs) from Portugal's National Qualifications Catalogue, delivered as certified modular training. The state and EU funds pay for them; trainees pay nothing and, depending on their situation, receive support.

• Who can join: adults aged 18 or over on the start date, employed or unemployed. Most machine courses only require 4 years of schooling; some funded providers give priority to people without a secondary-school diploma.
• Attendance: you need at least 90% attendance to get the certificate.
• Certificate: a qualifications certificate issued through SIGO (the national training records system) and recorded in your Passaporte Qualifica. The units count towards a full level-2 qualification (for example, lifting equipment operator).
• Class size: 15 to 30 trainees on funded courses. If too few sign up, the course is postponed or cancelled.

Which course to look for

When searching, use the Portuguese machine name («empilhador» for forklift, «grua» for crane, «plataformas elevatórias» for aerial platforms) and the UFCD code. For forklifts, look for 0420 or 8386: either one proves your training.

Where to find free courses

IEFP

IEFP's employment and training centres list their courses on IEFP Online, where you pre-register. Each listing says whether it's for employed people, unemployed people or both, plus the schedule, start date and schooling required. On 24 October 2026, for example:

• Santarém: UFCD 0420 forklifts, 50 h, daytime, for unemployed people, starting 2 November 2026.
• Tomar: forklift operation, 16 h, evenings, for employed people, starting 9 November.
• Porto: forklift driving, 8 h, for employed people, starting 18 November.
• Évora: lorry loader crane, 25 h, employed and unemployed, starting 2 December.

That day there were no aerial platform or excavator courses on IEFP Online. Listings change every week, so search again or ask at your local job centre.

CICCOPN (construction)

CICCOPN, the construction industry training centre based in Maia, has absorbed the former CENFIC (Prior Velho, Lisbon). It runs free machine courses in the evenings for employed and unemployed people with 4 years of schooling:

• Tower cranes, 100 h (UFCD 8377 + 8384), Maia, starting 6 November 2026.
• Counterbalance forklifts, 75 h (UFCD 8386 + lifting equipment safety), Maia, planned for May 2027.
• Telehandlers, 75 h (UFCD 8387 + lifting equipment checks), Maia, planned for May 2027.

Other centres and funded providers

• FOR-MAR (maritime sector centre): UFCD 0420 by blended learning in Peniche, and loading equipment operation (25 h) in Matosinhos, 3–9 December 2026, both €0.
• CENFIM (metalworking): forklift safety courses (12–16 h) in Santarém and Peniche, dates to be set.
• Private providers and associations funded by Pessoas 2030 (North, Centre and Alentejo): for example, AEBB ran a free UFCD 0420 in Proença-a-Nova with the municipality in October 2026, and Triformis lists UFCDs 8386, 8388 and 8389. They usually pay €6 a day for meals. The next national call for these courses is planned for January–April 2027.
• Lisbon and the Algarve have much less funded training: in Lisbon, EU-funded courses are mostly for unemployed people with secondary education; in the Algarve, only for residents of the region.
• Vida Ativa: 25 to 300-hour programmes for unemployed people registered at a job centre, which can include a 3 to 6-month work placement.
• Temp agencies: some run one-off events (Gi Group gave free forklift courses in Lisbon and Porto in 2025), but we found none running now. Most job ads ask for the certificate or say the company will train you.

How to sign up

1. Search IEFP Online, CICCOPN's website or local providers, and note the start date and requirements.
2. Pre-register online (IEFP Online uses Segurança Social Direta or Chave Móvel Digital logins) or at the job centre.
3. If you're unemployed, register at the job centre: it gives you priority and access to support.
4. Bring ID and proof of schooling to the selection session.
5. Apply for support when the course starts: at IEFP, within 10 working days of the start.
6. At the end, your certificate appears in your Passaporte Qualifica.

Support during the course

• Unemployment benefit: if you don't get a grant, you keep receiving unemployment benefit during the course without losing days. If the grant is smaller than the benefit, you get the difference and your benefit period is shortened in proportion.
• Note: refusing or dropping out of training offered by the job centre without good reason can cost you your unemployment benefit.

When the employer pays

If you already operate the machine at work, the training is not your cost:

• Safety training is the employer's responsibility and must not cost the worker anything (Law 102/2009, articles 15 and 20). Forklifts, platforms, cranes and excavators may only be driven by properly qualified workers (Decree-Law 50/2005, article 32), so it is the employer's job to make sure you're trained.
• 40 hours of training a year: every employee is entitled to at least 40 hours of continuous training a year (Labour Code, article 131). Hours the employer doesn't provide become a credit for training of your choice, and unused hours are paid when the contract ends.
• Training requested by the company from IEFP: since March 2026, IEFP has rules for continuous training for employees at the company's request. The company tells its local employment and training centre what it needs; IEFP organises the course (groups of 15–20, which can be on the company's premises during working hours), and the rules set no payment from the company to IEFP. Check the terms with the centre.
• Cheque-Formação (training voucher): IEFP still lists it as open. It pays 90% of a course up to €175 every two years for employed workers (requested by the worker or the company), and up to €500 for unemployed people registered for at least 90 days with secondary education or higher. Apply on IEFP Online before the course starts. The digital training voucher (up to €750) closed on 30 June 2026 and only covered digital courses.
• Funding for companies: COMPETE 2030 calls for company training (clusters and «Formação-Ação» through associations) are planned for late 2026 and 2027; none was open in October 2026.

Free course or paid course?

If you need the certificate urgently to start a job, a short paid course (prices in our forklift licence guide) is faster. If you have time, are unemployed or want a full qualification, the free course is worth it. Both have the same legal value: what counts is certified training plus training on the specific machine, which is always the employer's responsibility.

For foreigners living in Portugal

• IEFP courses are open to EU citizens and to foreign nationals with a valid residence permit (or a study visa). Support is the same as for Portuguese citizens.
• To register at a job centre you need a document allowing you to live and work in Portugal, such as a residence permit or a job-seeker visa.
• Machine courses are taught in Portuguese. IEFP and public schools run free Portuguese for newcomers courses («Português Língua de Acolhimento», levels A1 to B2); level A2 counts for permanent residence and citizenship.
• Foreign forklift certificates: since there is no Portuguese licence, there's nothing to convert; your employer decides whether to accept your training and gives you training on the machine. For aerial platforms, the international IPAF card is recognised in many countries: see our IPAF PAL card guide.

Common myths

• «IEFP issues forklift licences.» IEFP runs courses and issues training certificates; it doesn't issue licences.
• «A free course is worth less.» It has the same legal value as a paid course and gives a qualifications certificate.
• «A free online course is enough.» Without practice on the machine, it hardly proves you're qualified.
• «I have to pay for the training my job requires.» Safety training required for your job is paid by the employer.

Where Trapézio de Prismas fits in

We don't run training. We are JLG's representative in Portugal: we sell new and used JLG aerial platforms and telehandlers and carry out the mandatory periodic inspections the same law requires for machines. Operator manuals for JLG machines, useful for machine-specific training, are free in our JLG manuals library.