Financial help in Spain for learner drivers and would-be transport workers

LEARNING to drive may sound as thrilling as it is daunting, but can be one of the most frustrating times in a young adult's life – and one of the most expensive, too.

In Spain, you cannot start learning until you're 18 – unlike in, for example, the USA, where you can get your drivers' licence at 16, or in the UK, where you can start working towards your test at age 17.

Also, whilst some countries allow trainee drivers to practice in between lessons – perhaps in an older friend's or parent's car with L-plates attached – even on real roads in some cases, doing this in Spain is a criminal offence. A pupil caught practising, whether on an actual road or on an empty industrial estate or car park, will be treated at law in the same way as any other motorist found driving without a valid licence or after a ban. Effectively, a learner could find themselves with a driving ban as a result, before they have even passed their test.

In some countries, student drivers can save a fortune by getting their parents or another trusted adult to teach them in their own car – again, with L-plates – rather than having lessons with an accredited instructor. It may take longer, and perhaps lead to heated arguments, but is much cheaper. In Spain, though, you are not allowed: Only a registered instructor from a licensed driving academy, using an academy car, can teach you.

Driving academies in Spain are physical premises, and State-run, with official cars and instructors who are employed via the public-sector recruitment channels. This means their fees and other procedures are usually similar across the board.

These do not only teach people wanting to use a car for the first time: Driving schools can help already-qualified motorists change their career. Perhaps you love the open road and dream of becoming a lorry-driver or a long-distance coach driver. Or maybe you hope to apply to your local authority to be taxi or bus driver. Doing so means taking lessons, tests, and getting your existing driving licence upgraded – a great lifelong investment, although the initial outlay isn't cheap.

How expensive is learning to drive in Spain?

How much will it cost you, then, if you can only get behind the wheel at an approved driving school?

According to research by one of Spain's leading consumer organisations, the OCU, from your first lesson to passing your test, you can expect to pay between €600 and €1,600.

These figures take into account the cost for already-experienced car drivers who want to get a licence for heavy goods or passenger vehicles – lorries, coaches, and so on – and also factors in not passing your test the first time. On average, about 73% of new car drivers in Spain fail their first test, and if you're the type of person who suffers a confidence crisis as a result of a failure, you could end up having to retake it again and again – perhaps for years. Conversely, even if you're not in the 27% of first-time passers, you might be able to shrug it off and sail through your second.

But that's still another test fee you have to budget for.

Help is (sometimes) at hand

Clearly, not everyone has hundreds or thousands of euros to spend on lessons and tests. In fact, many young Spaniards will put off starting to learn until after university, or take their lessons in the summer holidays, when they can get a seasonal job to cover the cost.

This is especially the case for young adults in big cities, where excellent public transport links may mean they never need to own a car.

But around 53% of Spain's municipalities are small, remote villages with an ever-shrinking population, limited services, and no public transport, meaning that unless you learn to drive, you can never have a job.

Fortunately for anyone in this position, or who has children keen to discover four wheels, and is starting to panic about the expense involved – or who hopes to become a professional driver - several regional and provincial governments in Spain offer financial help towards the cost of lessons and tests.

Not all of them do – in fact, some of the most densely-populated regions do not – but this may change, especially if they take the lead of those which do so, or demand starts to fall in their area, putting the future of driving academies in jeopardy.

Even if your region is not listed here, though, you should still make enquiries about whether grants are available, since your individual town hall might run a small-scale scheme that could ease the financial pressure.

Madrid

Spain's capital may seem the last place where being able to drive was an absolute necessity, but the wider Madrid region is made up of lots of small towns, plenty of countryside, mountain ranges, ski resorts and inland beaches – not all of them served by train and bus links that run every few minutes.

Since March 2023, the regional government of Madrid has been offering a grant of €600 to everyone seeking to get a licence for goods or transport vehicles – categories C, D, and C+E.

This is largely a bid to help fill vacancies in the transport and haulage industries, and the regional government calculates that around 3,000 residents a year will take up the offer.

The €600 covers the price of registering with a driving school, buying the necessary textbooks, taking 10 practical and 20 theory lessons.

Applicants must already hold a licence for car driving (category B), and either be registered as resident or as a jobseeker in the region, or have a job at a physical workplace there.

Cantabria

Anyone resident in this northern coastal region and registered with a driving school, not earning more than the minimum wage (currently €15,120 per annum, before tax) – or a member of a 'large family' (two parents with three or more children, or single parents with two or more), when income is not taken into account – and aged between 16 and 30, can apply for a grant.

This is a flat payment of €200, although you cannot claim it until you have finished your lessons and passed both your practical and theory tests. Once you have done so, it will be paid to you as a partial refund of your costs.

La Rioja

This land-locked single-province territory in the north, world-famous for its wine regions, offers interest-free loans rather than pay-outs. The logic behind this is that, although the typical cost of learning to drive could be spread out over months or years to make it more affordable and accessible, many young adults cannot wait that long if they need a car to be able to work. To this end, the regional government will lend up to €2,000 to learners aged between 18 and 30, or up to €3,000 for those seeking a goods or transport vehicle licence, which has to be repaid within three years.

Those who qualify will either have been registered as residents in La Rioja for at least five years, or be a student in the region, and must hold a carné joven – a young person's card, available to anyone in this age group. 

The loans are only given to those who have never taken a test before, however.

Castilla y León

Women resident in the province of Valladolid, in the centre-northern region of Castilla y León, who live in towns with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, are eligible for a grant of €700 towards taking lessons and tests to be able to drive a car.

For those women who want to drive lorries or buses, they can claim up to €1,500 towards lessons and tests to get a licence upgrade to categories C or D.

Basque Country 

It is often said that the Basque regional language, euskera, is one of hardest to learn – not just in Spain, but on earth. Some say you need to have grown up there to grasp it at all – but if you have settled there and since had children, once they come to take their driving theory test, it would pay them, literally, to sit it in euskera rather than Castilian Spanish (the Spanish of Spain and Latin America).

The town council in Getxo, Vizcaya province – the capital of which is Bilbao - offers a grant of €100 towards the cost of taking a driving theory test to residents aged between 17 and 23, as long as they took it in euskera when they passed.

Once they have passed the test, they can then claim their €100.

This is part of a scheme called Gidabaimena Euskaraz ('driving licence in Basque'), which a network of driving schools have signed up to – taking the test at any participating centre allows candidates within the set age group to apply for the rebate.

Ask your town hall – about other financial schemes, too

Although it is unlikely many of our readers will be in a position to claim this payment, Getxo's scheme is a great example of how individual town councils may be offering help to their residents when they want to learn to drive for the first time, or get their lorry or coach licence. Such schemes are not normally widely advertised, and very rarely known about beyond the town itself, meaning it is always advisable to ask if your local authority provides any assistance.

This is particularly crucial if you qualify as a 'large family', in line with the description above; if anyone in your household has a registered disability (normally a minimum of 33% is required); if you are on a State pension from Spain or another country, or of State pension age; or if you are on a low income. Minimum wage or lower is automatically considered 'low income', but for some public benefits offered by local councils or regional governments, a higher figure may be used as a cut-off point.

In any of the above cases, you may be entitled to grants or discounts in other areas, not just driving lessons, so if your circumstances are similar, you should keep in constant contact with your town hall to ensure you don't miss out on any schemes being offered that could make your life just that little bit easier.