Vocational training funds pay up to 90% of AI courses

Most managers do not know that a large part of the cost of AI training for staff can be reimbursed. Iceland's vocational training funds reimburse companies up to 90% of course costs, up to 390,000 ISK per employee and up to 4 million ISK per company per year. The money exists; it is waiting in funds your company has already paid into.

What do the funds pay, and for whom?

Entitlements depend on the employees' unions. Two funds cover the largest part of the Icelandic labour market:

SVS, the vocational training fund for retail and office workers, covers members of VR and LÍV. The fund reimburses companies 90% of course costs, up to 390,000 ISK per employee and 4 million ISK per company per calendar year. For office staff, specialists and managers this is usually the right fund.

Starfsafl serves companies with staff in Efling and other SGS member unions and offers comparable terms: reimbursement of up to 90% of training costs, capped at 4 million ISK per company per year.

In addition, a joint grant can be applied for from SVS for more expensive courses, 200,000 ISK or more per person. The employee and the company then combine their entitlements and can receive a 90% reimbursement of up to 570,000 ISK per person, and up to 800,000 ISK with accumulated entitlements. This matters for managers and in-house specialists who go into deeper training.

SVS. who: VR and LÍV members · reimbursement: 90% · cap per employee: 390,000 ISK · cap per company per year: 4 million ISK

SVS joint grant. who: courses over 200,000 ISK per person · reimbursement: 90% · cap per employee: 570,000 ISK (800,000 ISK with accumulation) · cap per company per year: within the same limit

Starfsafl. who: Efling and other SGS unions · reimbursement: up to 90% · cap per employee: according to the fund's rules · cap per company per year: 4 million ISK

Note that the funds for public-sector employees and BHM work differently. If your staff are there, the entitlements need to be looked at separately.

The conditions: what needs to be in order?

The funds are not complicated, but they have clear rules. Three conditions matter most:

The training must be a defined course. The funds pay for courses with a defined start and end, a published course description and a predetermined curriculum. They do not pay for consulting, implementation or coaching. That is why it matters that the training provider understands the rules and structures the offer correctly from the start.

The company must have paid into the fund for 12 consecutive months. The contributions follow the collective agreements, so most companies with staff in VR or Efling meet this automatically without knowing it.

The application must be submitted within 12 months of the course. Applications go through attin.is, the joint portal of the vocational training funds. The invoice must be in the company's name.

The training provider does not, however, need to be formally certified. The funds look at the nature of the training and the paperwork, not at the provider's certifications.

Example: what does this mean in krónur?

Take a department of 20 people, all in VR, that attends a defined AI course. Say the course part of the training costs 3 million ISK, or 150,000 ISK per person.

The reimbursement is 90% of each employee's cost, 135,000 ISK per person, well within the 390,000 ISK cap. In total the company gets 2.7 million ISK back. The company's net cost: 300,000 ISK to train an entire department.

This changes the arithmetic completely. The question is no longer whether the company can afford training, but whether it can afford to skip it when 80% of professionals in the Icelandic labour market use AI at work but only 34% have received training from their employer (Viska 2025).

Vestra handles the application for you

The most common reason companies do not use their entitlements is simple: nobody wants to do the paperwork. So we take it on.

The AI Sprint is structured so that the training part meets the funds' conditions: a defined curriculum, a fixed start and end, and a published course description. In the free assessment we map out exactly which funds apply to your staff and what amounts are available, and then we prepare the application for you. You just need to sign.

The entitlements do not expire within the year, but the financial year does. The cap is per calendar year, so a company that plans training now and another round next year can use twice the limit.