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Banco de Portugal certifies the entities responsible for providing the training that grants professional certification:
to the employees of credit institutions involved in the preparation, trading and conclusion of home loans agreements and other mortgage loans;
to the persons who exercise or intend to exercise the activity of credit intermediary and provision of consultancy services in relation to credit agreements, as:
credit intermediary (natural persons);
member of the credit intermediary’s board of directors (legal persons);
technical expert responsible for the activity of credit intermediary;
employee of a credit intermediary or credit institution interested in the activity of credit intermediation or the provision of consultancy services in relation to mortgage credit agreements.
Any natural or legal person recognised by the National Qualifications System that intends to teach matters related to the marketing of mortgage credit agreements and to the activity of credit intermediary and the provision of consultancy services in respect of credit agreements.
Vocational training and rehabilitation centres for direct and protocol management in the ministries responsible for vocational training and education;
Training entities integrated in other ministries or other legal entities governed by public law;
Private and cooperative education establishments, vocational schools, new opportunities centres and entities with certified private sector training structures;
Companies that promote the training of their employees as well as other entities that compete for the same purpose;
Higher education institutions, in accordance with the specific legislation applicable to them;
Primary and secondary schools.
Private individuals or legal persons wishing to obtain certification as training entities must submit the application for certification to Banco de Portugal, by filling out the electronic form available on this website (only in Portuguese).
The application for certification must include the documents proving compliance with the applicable requirements.
Check here the phase in which your application for certification is. To do this, enter the code of the process that was sent to you by mail when submitting the request.
In order to be certified as a training entity, applicants must demonstrate that they meet the following requirements:
Entities that are already certified by the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations (DGERT) do not need to prove that they meet the prerequisites for certification or the requirement for spaces and equipment.
In the absence of such certification, applicants must demonstrate that:
they are regularly constituted and duly registered, in the case of legal persons;
they are not in a situation of suspension or prohibition from exercising their activity following a judicial or administrative decision;
have their tax administration and social security contributions in order;
have no outstanding debts or refunds relating to Community or national financial support, irrespective of their nature or objectives.
In addition to the pre-certification requirements, the interested party must demonstrate that they meet the requirements regarding their structure and the resources and processes that they intend to implement for the development of the training activities.
Interested parties must have:
a director of studies with a higher education qualification and adequate professional experience (at least three years of experience in the development of educational activities in financial, economic or banking matters), who regularly performs functions under a contractual relationship;
trainers with adequate scientific, technical or teacher training in financial, economic or banking matters and with professional experience of at least one year in the development of educational activities in these matters.
If the training is to be provided by means of distance communication, the training entity must also have an employee with specific training or at least one year of professional experience in organising or managing a distance learning device, educational strategies and distance learning programs and implementing them or mentoring methods and techniques in a distance learning context.
Should they wish to develop classroom training, the training entities must have training rooms with appropriate equipment and furniture.
If the applicants already have the DGERT certification, they do not need to demonstrate that this requirement has been met.
Applicants must draw up a training plan describing:
the schedule of the training actions with the planning of the number, dates and venues;
the objectives and results to be achieved, with the respective monitoring indicators;
the human and material resources to be allocated to the activity;
the partnerships and protocols, if applicable.
The training plan should be re-evaluated on an annual basis.
Interested parties must demonstrate that the activity they intend to develop is suited to the training objectives and to its recipients. They must first define:
the skills to be developed;
the learning objectives;
the learning itineraries with the identification of the modules and their pedagogical sequence in the training program.
If they want to carry out the training through means of distance communication, the interested parties must also ensure that:
the learning contents are structured according to specific international standards, revealing autonomy, interactivity and internal navigability;
they have an active mentoring system;
they have mechanisms to control the progression of the learning by the recipients through the return of evaluation results.
Interested parties must first define the rules of operation of the training actions, describing in adequate detail the following elements:
Access requirements and registration forms;
Criteria and methods for the selection of trainees;
Duties of attendance;
Trainees’ assessment criteria and methods.
In the case of distance learning, the training regulations should define the pedagogical services and activities carried out by the tutors as well as the individual and team work of the trainees, if applicable.
Interested parties must have a technical and pedagogical portfolio on training, containing the following elements:
Training program;
Session plans;
Training development regulation;
Identification of supporting documentation;
Identification of the director of studies and trainers;
Test template as well as a description of the form of evaluation and work reports.
In order to prove that they meet the certification requirements, interested parties must attach the following elements to the application for certification:
If the interested party is certified by DGERT, they must submit the respective certificate.
If not, they should provide the following elements:
Copy of the proof of identity (if the interested party is a natural person);
Updated articles of association and access code to the permanent certificate of commercial registration (if the interested party is a legal person);
Registration of the bye-laws by DGERT (if the interested party is an employers’ association or a union association);
Declaration by the interested party stating that they have not been suspended or prohibited from exercising the activity following a judicial or administrative decision;
Certificate of updated criminal record;
Individual registration of the subjects responsible for the labour disputes of the Authority for Working Conditions;
Certificates proving that they have their tax administration and social security contributions in order or declaration by which the interested party authorises Banco de Portugal to consult information about their fiscal and social security situation on the websites of the electronic declarations and social security service (Segurança Social Direta);
Declaration by the interested party that they have has no outstanding debts or refunds relating to Community or national financial support and records from the funding bodies.
Document proving that the interested party is the owner, lessee or is authorised to use the property in which it intends to carry out classroom-based training actions;
Document proving the labour contract of the director of studies, trainers and, where the interested party intends to carry out training by means of distance communication, of the co-worker responsible for this training;
Curriculum vitae of the interested party (natural person), of the director of studies, of the trainers and, where the interested party wishes to carry out training by means of distance communication, of the co-worker responsible for this training;
Certificate of qualifications and vocational training of the persons indicated in the previous point or prior declaration provided for in Law No. 9/2009, of 4 March (only in Portuguese), together with the other necessary documents, if they wish to have their professional qualifications recognised.
Training plan and study plan;
Partnerships and protocols;
Training programs;
Session plans and other technical instruments;
Technical and pedagogical resources;
Technical and pedagogical portfolio;
Training device, technological platform, possible protocols or contracts in the case of distance learning;
Operating regulation of the training activity;
Description of databases used;
Indication of other computer media.
Banco de Portugal shall notify the interested party of its decision within 90 days of the submission of the application for certification. If Banco de Portugal requests additional information or elements, the said period is suspended until the interested party provides the information or makes available the requested elements.
Banco de Portugal publishes the list of certified training entities.
Once they have obtained Banco de Portugal’s certification, the entities have to meet certain requirements:
The training entity should analyse, on an ongoing basis, and evaluate the results of the training activity developed in an annual report.
This report should be based on the business plan and should include the following elements, inter alia:
Evaluation of compliance with the planned objectives and results;
Results of the evaluation of the degree of satisfaction of customers and trainees as well as of the director of studies and trainers;
Results related to the participation and completion of the training actions, dropouts and achievement of the trainees;
Results of the evaluation of the performance of the director studies and the trainers;
Critical analysis of the results referred to above;
Improvement measures to be implemented.
The training entities must draw up and keep the following elements related to the development of their activity:
Report on the training actions carried out;
Performance indicator panel;
Records on the follow-up and evaluation of the activity.
Banco de Portugal evaluates the performance of the certified training entities, verifying aspects related to:
their internal structure and organisation, including human and material resources and financial capacity;
the quality of the training service provided, including internal and external evaluation aspects;
the results of the training activity.
The certified training entity must carry out a self-assessment process on an annual basis and provide information to Banco de Portugal on the results of this process.
Banco de Portugal also checks if the requirements to obtain the certification continue to be met through audits. Among other aspects, the audits focus on the conformity of the training offer of the training entity with the references contained in the National Qualifications Catalogue.
The certification may be passed on to another entity that acquires the internal structure and organisation of a certified training entity.
The request for transfer must be requested from Banco de Portugal, accompanied by proof of acquisition of the internal structure and organisation from the certified training entity.
Banco de Portugal has 30 days after the request to communicate its decision.
Failure to comply with the requirements for certification and failure to comply with other duties of the training entity in the exercise of its activity may determine the total or partial revocation of the certification granted by Banco de Portugal.
In addition, the certification expires if any of the following situations occurs:
Extinction of the certified training entity without transferring the certification to another entity;
Absence of training activity for two consecutive years;
Prohibition from exercising the activity, by judicial or administrative decision.
The certified entity must, whenever possible, inform Banco de Portugal of the date and reason for its extinction.
Form for application for certification as a training entity (only in Portuguese)
List of certified training entities
Decree-Law No. 74-A/2017 (only in Portuguese)
Decree-Law No. 81-C/2017 (only in Portuguese)
Decree-Law No. 396/2007 (only in Portuguese)
Ordinance No. 851/2010 (only in Portuguese)
Ordinance No. 385-D/2017 (only in Portuguese)
Ordinance No. 385-C/2017 (only in Portuguese)
Ordinance No. 385-B/2017 (only in Portuguese)