What happened
On 25 September 2026 HRDA announced that its "Training programmes for the acquisition of digital skills" continue from 1 September to 31 December 2026 with national funding, on the same main terms. EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funding ended on 31 August 2026, and the Council of Ministers approved €300,000 on 30 July 2026 from the budget of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy.
Taking part is 100% funded and open to private and public sector employees, self-employed people and unemployed people.
Earlier, on 8 September 2026, HRDA approved 3,657 multi-company courses for 101,124 people in the second half of 2026, with a total budget of €33.5 million. Topics include digital skills at every level, including artificial intelligence and robotics. Applications go through the ERMIS system via the training centre, before the course starts or before 25% of it has run.
What it means for an office in Cyprus
If your staff already use ChatGPT or Copilot without training, they can take digital courses at no cost until the end of the year. The AI Act asks every employer to take measures for staff AI literacy, and a course with an attendance certificate is good evidence.
Public courses are general: they teach tools, not your own processes. For training on your own documents and workflows, HRDA's single-company scheme pays employers up to €20 per participant per hour.
What to do
- Ask staff who wants a digital skills course while it is 100% funded, until 31 December 2026
- Check the available courses and the second-half 2026 list on the HRDA website and pick AI or digital tools topics
- For multi-company courses, apply in ERMIS through the training centre before 25% of the course has run
- Keep the attendance certificates in your AI Act compliance file
- For training on your own processes, plan a single-company course for 2027