## Three different things with three different jobs

People treat PLA and IEFP as two competing routes, and then get confused when the answers
overlap. They sit at different levels.

**PLA** is the programme. It is Portugal's state-funded Portuguese training for immigrants and
refugees, built around integration rather than language alone, and funded from the Portuguese
state budget together with the European Social Fund and the Asylum, Migration and Integration
Fund. That public funding is why places can be free.

**IEFP** is the agency. The Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional coordinates the
programme nationally. It is where many people register, which is why "IEFP course" is often used
as shorthand for the whole thing.

**The training entity** is who actually teaches you. Courses are delivered by a network of
providers across the country, not by IEFP directly.

## The part that decides whether your certificate works

The training entity must hold current DGERT certification. That is what makes the certificate it
issues valid proof of language proficiency for a citizenship application.

A certificate from a provider without that certification may not be accepted. This holds whether
the course reached you through IEFP, through a municipality, or privately, and it holds whether
you paid nothing or paid well. Ask for the certification number and verify it before you enrol.

## What this means practically

Asking "PLA or IEFP?" is the wrong question. The useful questions are: is there a place available
to me, on a schedule I can actually attend, with a DGERT-certified provider?

If the answer is no on availability or schedule, a private PLA course or the CIPLE exam are the
routes that remain. We prepare people for the reading part of the CIPLE, and we neither run
courses nor issue certificates.