For training organizations, making one or more training offers eligible for the CPF can be an attractive option. What is the CPF, what are its advantages and how can you make your offer eligible?
Article summary:
- What is the CPF?
- Why should you be eligible for the CPF?
- What’s the difference between training and certification?
- How do I qualify?
- What do I do once my application has been validated?
- What checks are carried out afterwards?
What is the CPF?
The Compte Personnel Formation (CPF) is a scheme that gives all working people over the age of 16 a budget with which to finance training on a wide variety of subjects. It is capped at €5,000 (€8,000 for non-graduates and/or disabled workers). The account is updated every year.
The CPF allows you to finance training courses without the need for authorization from your employer or Pôle Emploi, so you’re free to choose your training program, as long as it leads to a certificate or diploma, i.e. a professional qualification (except for certain general training courses).
France Compétences is the national regulatory and financing authority for vocational training and apprenticeship. France Compétences draws up the list of training courses eligible for the CPF, which currently stands at 14,000. This list is regularly updated.
Why should you be eligible for the CPF?
As a training organization, it may be worth your while to make some or all of your training courses eligible for the CPF. Eligible training courses can be financed up to 100%, which increases your visibility with working people and people who would not have thought of training if they had to pay the full cost. This can also bring you new trainees.
The CPF also enables you to secure payments, and gain credibility with your potential customers. This is all the more true since, as of January1, 2022, Qualiopi certification is required to make a training course eligible for the CPF. All eligible training courses therefore benefit from enhanced credibility, since Qualiopi is a guarantee of quality.
What’s the difference between training and certification?
Certification validates skills that demonstrate the ability to carry out activities independently in a professional context.
A skill is “the relevant mobilization of resources (e.g. knowledge, technical know-how, interpersonal skills) and those of one’s environment, in a variety of situations, to carry out an activity with a view to achieving professional objectives”. It is therefore not a training action or knowledge.
A training action takes a trainee from point A to point B, with the aim of developing skills.
How do I make an offer eligible for cpf?
1. Check if your training is copyright-free
Here is the list of training courses automatically eligible for the CPF:
- All training courses leading to certifications listed in the RNCP and Répertoire Spécifique ;
- Support for the Validation of Prior and Experiential Learning (VAE) ;
- Skills assessment ;
- Training courses leading to the Common Base of Knowledge and Skills, in other words the CléA certificate;
- Training programs to help people take over or start their own business ;
- B license (excluding B1 and BE licenses);
- Qualifying training courses that appear on one of the lists drawn up by the social partners;
- Training courses under the Compte d’Engagement Citoyen (CEC) scheme, enabling civic service volunteers, voluntary workers and volunteer firefighters to acquire the skills they need to carry out their missions.
2. Establish a partnership or register your certification with the RS or RNCP
The essential criterion to be able to make your training eligible for the CPF is that it must be certifying, qualifying or diploma-granting(law of March 5, 2014 on professional training). It must also meet the needs of the job market.
/!\ Some common law training courses do not need to be certified. These include business start-ups, driving licenses and skills assessments.
There are two ways to make your training eligible: enter into a partnership or certify your training action.
1. There are certifications already listed by France Compétences that can be applied to the training you deliver.
You can then contact the certification partner and enter into a partnership based on a set of specifications, sometimes for a fee. You take charge of the training program and, at the end of the course, your trainees take the certification test in accordance with the procedure set up by the Certification Body. Certification must be linked to the training program. You then become a partner of the certifier and are entitled to prepare the certification. However, you will need to check that the certification remains active and is renewed when it expires.
Entering into a partnership enables you to appear on the list of certification bodies. Each certification body has its own specifications (fees, procedures, seniority, etc.). Please note, however, that some certification bodies do not wish to enter into partnerships.
The role of a Certification Body is clearly distinct from that of certification training providers, who prepare students for certifications registered in one of the two directories.
As a result, and given the large number of certifications already registered, partnerships between certifiers and training providers are encouraged in order to limit requests for registration of new certifications.
2. There is no certification that corresponds to your training path.
You can then register your own certification or diploma with France Compétences.
If you wish to apply for registration of a certification, you will need to be able to justify the usefulness of the certification or diploma. New entrants to the market should be cautious, as this requires at least two years’ experience. You need to :
– for RNCP, issue certification to at least two graduating classes (a graduating class represents all the graduates of a given year) and monitor their professional integration over a two-year period after obtaining certification;
– for the RS, to deliver certification to enough holders to be able to demonstrate its economic and social value.
How do I know whether a certification is part of the RS or the RNCP?
- For certifications directly linked to a business skill (e.g.: Mention Complémentaire Pâtisserie glacerie chocolaterie confiserie spécialisées), you need to apply for registration on therépertoire national des certifications professionnelles (RNCP).
- You need to apply for registration in thespecific directoryof certifications and authorizations for cross-disciplinary skills certifications (Tosa, Leveltel, Permis B).
In both cases, your request will be made online by creating an account on France Compétences.
Steps for creating a certification project
Step 1
It is advisable to assess the project’s suitability for the job market‘s proven needs in terms of skills or professions. “What is the real need expressed by the economic players concerned, and what are the sources that attest to its reality ?
Step 2
Check that the certification project does not already exist (Search for professional certification). If a similar certification is already registered, there are two possible options:
– Create a partnership with the existing certification body
– Continue with the certification project, bearing in mind that only labor market needs can justify its creation and registration.
Step 3
Formalize a skills repository and an assessment repository
– Skills repository: a professional skill is a precise action in an identified context. Writing in terms of competencies must therefore be structured using action verbs formulated in the infinitive (Bloom’s taxonomy).
– Assessment framework: setting up assessment methods and criteria to certify that certified candidates have mastered the target skills.
Step 4
Implementation of control procedures for all assessment test organization methods. In practical terms, certification juries are set up. Certification is then issued in the name of the applicant organization.
Assistance leaflets are available to validate a complete file:
For RNCP :
https://www.francecompetences.fr/app/uploads/2019/12/notice_aide_rncp_10122019.pdf
For the Specific Directory :
https://www.francecompetences.fr/app/uploads/2019/12/notice_aide_rs_10122019.pdf
Processing time and rejection rate
The rejection rate for applications to the Répertoire spécifique (ex-Inventaire) reached 80% in 2020.
Deadlines :
The average time between submission of the application to France Compétences and notification of the decision (positive or negative) is 7 months.
The steps are as follows:
Preparation and drafting of the file (independent of France Compétences) 2 MONTHS
The success rate for the admissibility phase is 60%. Around a third of files are returned to the applicant for further information. Finally, 5% are declared inadmissible.
The Commission (phase #4) meets every month except August, and deliberates on an average of around 200 files (2020 data).
Over 80% of applications to the Répertoire spécifique are rejected, compared with 40% for the Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles (RNCP).
Calendar of forthcoming France Compétences commissions to examine RNCP and RS certifications :
22/04/2022 | 31/05/2022 | 30/06/2022
3. Qualiopi certification
The decree making Qualiopi certification mandatory to be eligible for CPF came into force on January 1, 2022.
If you are certified, you simply need to make sure that you are on the Qualiopi certification list.
Find out more in this article.
4. Proving that people with disabilities are taken into account
To be eligible, it will be necessary to demonstrate that people with disabilities are taken into account in the design of examination or certification procedures. This also ties in with Qualiopi, since a number of criteria call for genuine consideration to be given to the specific needs of people with disabilities.
What do I do once my application has been validated?
Once your application has been validated, you must file an initial declaration of activity on the mesdemarches.emploi.gouv.fr portal to obtain a registration number by which you can be identified. This number must always appear on purchase orders, invoices and professional training contracts.
You can then enter your training courses on the dedicated Training Organization Area (EDOF)!
What checks are carried out?
Whether you have registered it with France Compétences, or purchased a certification already listed, your training is now eligible, and trainees and companies can register directly from their CPF account.
On the other hand, you are subject to a number of controls and obligations.
First of all, you need to maintain your Qualiopi certification, and therefore pass the various surveillance and renewal audits.
You must also submit your Pedagogical and Financial Report each year. If you fail to do so, or if it is null, your activity declaration number will be deactivated and you will no longer be able to offer CPF-eligible training courses.
On the CPF site, training offers are constantly monitored: you must ensure that they are consistent with the type of certification offered, and that you are using the correct codes, otherwise your training will be deactivated. You must also comply with France Compétences’ terms and conditions.
You can also be inspected at any time by the OPCO, in the form of an audit.
Finally, if you are a certification body, you must also declare all the partners authorized to prepare your certification (in other words, the training organizations that have purchased the certification from you in order to add it to their program). This declaration must be made annually on the dedicated platform.
