What is a GIAC, and what texts is it based on?
A GIAC is a non-profit association set up by professional federations and associations to help the companies in their sector identify their skills needs and build their training plan. It reimburses part of the corresponding studies, from continuing training funds managed by OFPPT (Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail), Morocco’s public vocational training office.
The acronym has two expansions. OFPPT’s manuals speak of “groupements interprofessionnels d’aide au conseil”; the French text of Law No. 60-17 on the organisation of continuing training speaks of “groupements interprofessionnels à l’appui du conseil” (art. 32). Both mean inter-professional groups that support consulting, and both refer to the same bodies. In English, the closest description is inter-professional advisory groups, but the French acronym is the one used in the official documents.
The mechanism predates the law. According to the GIAC procedures manual of March 2003, the public authorities set it up in 1996-1997 to bring out companies’ demand for in-employment training. GIACs were created by the professional federations; they are aimed first at companies with a development project, particularly small and medium-sized businesses and manufacturers.
The model statutes annexed to the manual describe a simple organisation:
- ex officio members (membres de droit), the founding associations and federations, and adherent members, the associations, federations and companies admitted afterwards;
- an elected chair, who represents the GIAC and executes favourable opinions;
- a commitments advisory committee (comité consultatif des engagements, CCE), which must be consulted on the admissibility and appropriateness of every file;
- a director and a support unit, who review applications, check reimbursement files and identify the expertise able to define companies’ skills needs.
On OFPPT’s side, a GIAC management unit reviews the funding agreements and authorises payments to the GIACs.
Text | What it provides | What the company should take from it |
|---|---|---|
Law No. 60-17, art. 7 | Treats strategy studies, engineering studies and the drafting of training plans as continuing training | Engineering is a continuing training operation in its own right |
Law No. 60-17, art. 20 | Entrusts these actions to associations set up by professional organisations | The GIAC is the contact for engineering, not the CSF management unit |
Law No. 60-17, art. 21 and 22 | Model statutes and accreditation set by regulation; funding agreements with OFPPT | Check that the GIAC is accredited and has a funding agreement |
Law No. 60-17, art. 32 | Keeps the manual for OFPPT–GIAC agreements in force until it is replaced | The 2003 manual remains the reference until a new manual replaces it |
GIAC manual, March 2003 | Fundable actions, rates, eligibility, procedure, model contract | Basis of the rules described in this guide |
Amendment No. 1, 2 June 2014 | Sector engineering, consulting bodies, third-party payment | In force since 1 June 2014 |
The manual and its amendment (avenant n° 1) were among the documents OFPPT offered on its “Private companies” page (Entreprises privées), in a capture from April 2026. They remain the reference in force. No official GIAC website was found: the contact details of the relevant GIAC can be obtained from your professional federation or from OFPPT.
What does a GIAC fund, and what does it not fund?
The GIAC reimburses part of two types of study carried out for a member company: the development strategy study and the engineering of the training plan. It does not fund the training itself, which falls under OFPPT’s special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF).
The 2003 manual distinguishes three families of fundable actions (point 4.1):
- Information and awareness about in-employment training, carried out by the GIAC itself with professional organisations, chambers and companies.
- Studies and advice for companies, groups of companies and industry branches, to determine the medium-term development strategy, the operational means needed to achieve it and the skills needs that follow from it.
- Training plan engineering, which covers the diagnosis of training needs and the drafting of the resulting plans.
The last two families benefit member companies, groups of companies and professional branches. The manual adds a rule specific to sectors: for a professional organisation with a GIAC covering its sector, sector engineering studies can be funded by the vocational training tax only through that GIAC. Amendment No. 1 of 2014 sets the procedure for these sector studies: launched after approval by the management committee, entrusted to a consultancy chosen from a shortlist approved by the GIACs and associations concerned, and paid through third-party payment.
The reference rule is coverage of 70% of the engineering cost excluding tax, within a reimbursement cap of MAD 100,000, with the higher rates below. The 2003 manual details it as follows (point 4.3.2):
Funded action | Rate under the 2003 manual | Limit under the manual |
|---|---|---|
Studies and advice to define a development strategy | 70% of the total cost excluding taxes | Reimbursement capped at MAD 100,000 per company, in all cases |
Training plan engineering | 70% of the total cost excluding taxes | Reimbursement capped at MAD 100,000 per company, in all cases |
Engineering following a strategy study approved by the GIAC | Rate raised to 80% | Reimbursement capped at MAD 100,000 per company, in all cases |
Sector engineering | Rate raised to 100% | Separate procedure, Amendment No. 1 of 2014 |
These rates, including the higher rate for engineering that follows a strategy study, and this ceiling remain in force. A rate is not an amount: actual coverage depends on the cost accepted, the ceiling and the compliance of the file.
What the GIAC does not fund matters just as much. The training actions in the plan fall under the CSF, filed with the CSF management unit (Unité de gestion des CSF). The certification audit, works, investments and transformation assignments, such as a Lean project or a reorganisation, stay in the company’s own budget. Our page diagnostic and transformation separates these components one by one.
Strategic diagnosis, needs analysis, training plan: what is the difference?
They are three levels of the same approach. The strategic diagnosis says where the company is going and what skills that requires; the needs analysis measures, role by role, the gap with the skills in place; the training plan turns those gaps into dated, budgeted actions.
The CSF manual of May 2006 gives two useful definitions (our translation). Training engineering is an “action to identify training needs and draw up training plans that meet companies’ skills needs”. The training plan is a “set of training actions planned annually”. What the CSF manual calls a “strategic diagnosis study” corresponds, in our reading, to the studies and advice to define a development strategy in the GIAC manual.
Level | Question addressed | Deliverable | What the GIAC looks at |
|---|---|---|---|
Strategic diagnosis | Where is the company heading in the medium term, with what means and what skills? | Report: strategic directions, operational means, skills needs | The link with a development project: exports, technology investment, upgrading to standards |
Needs analysis | Which gaps, in which roles, for which populations? | Map of job roles, required skills, measured gaps | The recommendations needed to upgrade skills |
Training plan | Which actions, for whom, when, at what cost? | Annual plan: summary sheet, action sheets and provider sheets | Consistency with the study, and a format usable for the CSF files |
The strategic diagnosis is not compulsory: the CSF manual asks for the certificate of its approval by the GIAC “if it exists”. Yet it carries weight in three places in the texts:
- The engineering rate. Under the 2003 manual, engineering that follows a strategy study approved by the GIAC qualifies for a higher rate.
- The CSF ceiling. For certain bands of declared vocational training tax (taxe de formation professionnelle, TFP), the CSF manual provides a more favourable reimbursement ceiling when the company has an approved strategic diagnosis study. Ask OFPPT for the scale that applies to your financial year.
- The technical file. The certificate of approval of the strategic diagnosis then joins the file for the planned actions.
There is also a reason of method. A needs analysis without a strategy produces a wish list drawn from a catalogue. Take a plastics processing SME in the Casablanca region that is investing in an injection moulding line and targeting new export customers: without a strategic diagnosis, its plan repeats last year’s courses; with one, it targets the setters, quality inspectors and team leaders that the new line makes critical.
How does GIAC-approved engineering unlock the planned training rate?
Because the CSF manual recognises as planned only the actions entered in an annual plan “necessarily derived from a training engineering study”. A plan derived from engineering that the relevant GIAC has not approved is treated as a set of unplanned actions.
The technical file for a planned action therefore brings together, before the plan itself, three documents that come from the GIAC or the study (CSF manual, P 2.1):
- the GIAC’s certificate of approval of the strategic diagnosis study, if there is one;
- the report of the engineering action that led to the training plan;
- the GIAC’s certificate of approval of the engineering.
This file must be filed by 30 June of year N at the latest, a rule kept by Amendment No. 2 of 2014 to the CSF manual. The engineering must therefore be approved before that date, and the study carried out well before. The certificate of access to the CSF system, which can be requested from October of the year before the financial year, also covers the diagnostic and engineering actions funded by the GIACs, which are subject to it (CSF manual, P 1.0). The procedure and the time taken to issue the certificate of approval of the engineering should be confirmed with the competent GIAC: allow for them in your calendar.
The financial stakes show in the CSF reference rules (2006 manual and Amendment No. 2): 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider, 40% for unplanned training. The two circuits stay separate: according to OFPPT’s CSF page, reimbursement claims for engineering actions are handled by the relevant GIACs. The rest of the path, from the CSF contract to the transfer order, is described in our OFPPT training reimbursement guide.
What are the steps of a GIAC-funded training engineering study?
Eight steps, in an order that cannot be reversed: the GIAC’s agreement comes before the study, and approval of the engineering comes before the CSF funding applications for the planned actions.
Step | What to produce | Rule and source |
|---|---|---|
1. Check eligibility and membership | CNSS certificate for the TFP, membership of the relevant GIAC | GIAC manual, point 5.1; “Private companies” page |
2. Obtain the CSF access certificate | Administrative file | CSF manual, P 1.0, from October N-1 |
3. Scope the study and choose the provider | Proposal: resources, duration, cost | Standard agreement, art. 9 and 12 |
4. File the application with the GIAC | Information form, proof of TFP, development project, objectives and expected results, proposal, estimated cost | Standard agreement, art. 12 |
5. Obtain the CCE’s opinion and sign the contract | Contract signed no later than 15 days after the favourable opinion, enforceable for one year at most | Standard agreement, art. 14 and 16 |
6. Carry out the study | GIAC informed 24 hours before the start; possible GIAC visit | Model contract, art. V and VI |
7. Pay the provider and claim reimbursement | Accounting documents, study report, summary presentation of the resulting actions | Standard agreement, art. 17 |
8. File the CSF technical file | Certificates of approval, engineering report, training plan | CSF manual, P 2.1, before 30 June N |
Step 1 refers to the CNSS, Morocco’s national social security fund, with which the company must be in good standing for the TFP. Three rules in the manual are worth knowing from the outset. The contract uses the cost of the intervention excluding taxes, as estimated by the company: that is the amount the GIAC takes into account. Reimbursement only comes after the study has been carried out and the provider paid in full; the standard agreement sets a maximum of one month between the decision that the reimbursement file is admissible and the payment. Finally, Amendment No. 1 governs third-party payment (tiers payant): the GIAC pays the consultancy directly, under a contract signed between the company, the consultancy and the GIAC, provided the consultancy is a public training operator or a consulting and training body holding a valid qualification label from the Vocational Training department.
How to conduct the study itself, from mapping job roles to the deliverables handed to the GIAC, is covered in our article training needs analysis for GIAC approval, step by step. Ask the competent GIAC for its own forms, such as the information form or the report template.
How do you choose and steer the study provider?
On three verifiable criteria: its independence from the company, its eligibility under the texts, and its ability to deliver a plan directly usable for the CSF files.
- Independence. Under the standard agreement (art. 9), the provider chosen by the company is a legal or natural person with no organisational or family link to it.
- Eligibility. Amendment No. 1 (point 4.2.3) covers private consulting and training bodies liable for the TFP whose declarations are in order, under a condition that depends on their date of registration with the CNSS, as well as public bodies: universities, engineering schools, vocational training institutions. It also mentions the company itself, if it has the necessary skills; how this possibility fits with the independence rule of the standard agreement should be confirmed with the competent GIAC.
- What happens to the plan next. The 2006 CSF manual limited to 25% of the overall plan amount the share that the body that wrote the engineering study could deliver; Amendment No. 2 of 2014 repealed that condition. The same manual nevertheless lists among the actions to be checked as a priority those of a plan more than 30% delivered by a single body (point 7.3). A plan that concentrates actions on one provider is not prohibited, but it has to be justified.
Before signing with an engineering provider
Can you apply to the GIAC every year?
Not for the same study. The standard agreement makes a second funding subject to a minimum interval and to the implementation of the previous study (art. 10).
- A new strategy study is funded only at least two years after the previous one, and provided the company has carried out the engineering that was to follow it and implemented the resulting plan.
- A new engineering study is funded only at least one year after the previous one, and provided the resulting plan has been implemented.
The logic is clear: the GIAC funds studies that turn into training. A company that has a diagnosis funded and then leaves the plan in a drawer closes the door to the next funding. Conversely, the annual training review, carried out against the plan, prepares the next application. Before building the next plan, confirm with the competent GIAC and OFPPT for how many financial years an approved engineering study supports the planned status of actions.
What to check, text by text, before launching the study for the 2027 financial year is summarised in our article GIAC training engineering 2027: what to check first; the share of the cost that is covered, in training engineering study cost and the GIAC share; the full approach applied to a manufacturer, in our industrial SME case study. Where the GIAC fits in the overall scheme, from management’s point of view, is presented in our guide to OFPPT special training contracts for CEOs and HR.