Cursos Femxa

What Cursos Femxa is

Cursos Femxa is a Spanish training portal run by Femxa, a company that describes itself as "Especialistas en consultoría y formación para el empleo" (specialists in consulting and training for employment). Its home page leads with free courses: "Cursos gratuitos online y presenciales", funded by the SEPE (Spain's public employment service) and the regional employment services, for employed workers, the self-employed and the unemployed. Alongside that free offer, the site sells private online courses that employees can often take at no cost to themselves through their employer's annual training credit. The legal notice names the operator as Learning and Support Services, S.L.U., with an address in Vigo (Pontevedra).

The reader it serves is an adult in Spain who wants to build a professional skill: a worker looking for promotion, a self-employed person growing a business, a job seeker retraining, or an employer planning staff training. The site, the courses and the support are in Spanish.

Free subsidized courses

The core of the site is the subsidized catalog. The home page explains that, as a worker, you can join the state's training plans, and that the aim is professional promotion and better skills for your sector. A finder asks for your employment status (employed, self-employed, unemployed, public employee or social economy worker), your company's sector, from retail and construction to health, metalworking and private security, and the province where you work, then shows the courses you can apply for. Some courses keep a share of places for unemployed people.

The home page counters show 922 courses with places available, 3,706 new users and 6,880 place requests in the last week. Its top free courses give a flavor: Selección de personal online (online recruitment, 25 hours, in a virtual classroom based in Salamanca), Programa avanzado Agile Project Management (90 hours, online across Spain, for the metal sector), Creación de blogs y redes sociales (60 hours, for the self-employed) and Photoshop básico (online, for Cantabria). Courses are listed by region, from Andalucía and Aragón to Galicia, Madrid and Valencia, because much of the funding is regional.

The FAQ explains why learners apply through Femxa rather than the SEPE: the SEPE funds and manages calls for training but does not teach, so collaborating organizations deliver it, and Cursos Femxa gathers its own courses and those of other organizations in one place.

Private and "bonificable" courses

The second catalog is paid. The home page describes "más de 500 cursos sin requisitos de acceso" (more than 500 courses with no entry requirements) that are "hasta 100% bonificables" for employees, meaning they can be paid from the FUNDAE training credit their company has each year. The course pages say Femxa handles all the paperwork for that, and that self-employed people, civil servants and job seekers can ask for an extra discount code instead.

The Plataformas e-learning course shows how a private course is sold. It sits in the education category, runs online for 30 hours with a personal tutor and practical exercises, starts every Wednesday and ends in a diploma. Its list price of 195,00 € carries a 40% web discount, bringing it to 117,00 €. The syllabus covers an introduction to e-learning, the parts of an e-learning system, the psychology and pedagogy of virtual learning, planning, online tutoring and evaluation, and the full temario can be downloaded. Its tutor, Marcos López, introduces himself on the page as a teacher drawn to the constant change in education.

Other private courses on the site follow the same pattern of a list price and a web price: Habilidades de venta (sales skills, listed with 2 ECTS) at 165,00 € instead of 275,00 €, Contabilidad (accounting) at 225,00 € instead of 375,00 €, Creatividad en el aula at 273,00 € instead of 455,00 €, and Metodología del juego de 0 a 6 años at 135,00 € instead of 225,00 €. The private catalog spans topics including agriculture, design, education, finance, hospitality, languages, marketing, office software, health and safety, programming, HR, health, IT security and soft skills.

Payment is by PayPal, bank transfer or credit card, and an order above 50€ can be split into installments over 3, 6 or 12 months "al momento y sin papeleo" (instantly and without paperwork). Anyone who completed a course with Femxa in the last two years gets a further 10% coupon, which the site says can mean "Hasta un 50% de descuento" across the catalog.

How studying works

Once enrolled, the learner receives login details for the course's Campus Virtual and can study "cuando quieras (24 horas al día)", from any computer with an internet connection; the course page adds that the pace and course plan are designed to fit around work and family. Inside the campus there are downloadable materials, explanatory video tutorials, discussion forums, chats, practical cases, extra reading and activities.

Support comes from a personal tutor, who answers questions live during tutoring hours or by email and can also be reached by phone, plus a technical support team. The site says no particular computer skills are needed, as the platform guides learners step by step. The home page FAQ describes the method as a mix of theory, practical exercises, self-assessments and gamified activities, applied by a teaching staff of "más de 300 docentes en plantilla" covering more than 23 sectors.

Certificates and results

What a learner receives depends on the course. Private courses end in "un diploma que certifica el correcto aprovechamiento del curso" (a diploma certifying successful completion). For free courses, the FAQ says learners get a diploma for having completed a specialty from the SEPE's catalog, or an official vocational training certificate issued by the Ministry of Education when the course leads to a grade B or C qualification. The FAQ adds that some Femxa diplomas carry university-accredited titles, and that the site also offers vocational training in grades A to D, where grades A, B and C include micro-credentials and official modules that can count toward a vocational training cycle.

On results, the FAQ says Femxa has trained more than 500.000 people in the last 10 years in 25 sectors, and that more than 95% of people who start a course finish it satisfied. Elsewhere it speaks of a community of more than 800.000 people trained over time, who get priority information on new courses. One learner review on the e-learning course page, from Elisabeth Monzón, calls it "imprescindible para cualquier docente" (essential for any teacher).

Who it suits and who it does not

Cursos Femxa suits people working or looking for work in Spain who want free, state-funded training matched to their sector and region, and employees whose company has FUNDAE credit to cover a private course. The tutor support, weekly start dates and around-the-clock campus suit people studying alongside a job.

It is a weaker fit for anyone outside Spain, since most of the free offer depends on Spanish employment status and region, and for learners who do not read Spanish. Eligibility rules differ from course to course, so the course page is the place to check.