Law 60-17 on Continuing Training: What Changed for the CSF

What does Law No. 60-17 change for special training contracts?

It moves continuing training from a regime of regulations and manuals to a dedicated law. Management is entrusted to OFPPT, funding rules are referred to a new procedures manual, and inspections are organised by the law itself.

A few names first, for readers outside Morocco. OFPPT, the Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail, is Morocco’s public vocational training office. Special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF) are the scheme through which it reimburses companies for part of their employees’ continuing training. GIACs, the “groupements interprofessionnels à l’appui du conseil”, are inter-professional advisory groups set up by employers’ organisations to support training engineering. The vocational training tax (taxe de formation professionnelle, TFP) is the tax levied on employers for the benefit of OFPPT.

Law No. 60-17 on the organisation of continuing training was enacted by Dahir No. 1-18-94 of 5 October 2018. According to the Adala portal of the Ministry of Justice, the Arabic text was published in Official Bulletin No. 6721 of 29 October 2018 and the French text in Official Bulletin No. 6774 of 2 May 2019. It takes effect on publication in the Official Bulletin, with one exception: provisions that require regulatory texts only take effect when those texts are published (art. 32).

Article 32 also says where things came from. Before the law, special training contracts and agreements between OFPPT and the GIACs rested on “regulatory provisions” and on two procedures manuals, which the law keeps until they are replaced.

The provisions awaiting an implementing text are listed further down. The status shown reflects our reading of article 32: confirm with OFPPT the status of the provisions that concern you.

Which changes affect the company directly?

Four changes touch the day-to-day management of training: maintained salary, support for SMEs, provider qualification and the time credit taken at the employee’s initiative.

• Salary is maintained. During training, employees keep their salary and the other rights attached to their status as employees (art. 5). Training time is therefore a cost that management must put in the plan.
• SMEs are explicitly targeted. OFPPT, through its dedicated unit, provides support and technical assistance to companies, particularly medium, small and very small ones (art. 6).
• Providers must be qualified. Training is delivered by institutions, providers and companies qualified under conditions set by regulation (art. 9), and qualification is withdrawn from a provider that fails to meet its contractual commitments (art. 30). Choosing a provider becomes a compliance question, not only a question of price.
• Employees have their own initiative. The continuing training time credit, of at least three working days a year and cumulative over five years, comes on top of the programmes the company organises (art. 8). A well-built training plan anticipates these requests.

The right to training (art. 3) and the scope of actions (art. 7) are presented on our page OFPPT special training contracts (CSF) and GIAC funding.

How has the governance of continuing training changed?

The law creates a governance of its own for continuing training within OFPPT: a board meeting in special session, a permanent administrative unit, an autonomous budget and an annual external audit.

• Separate management. OFPPT manages continuing training independently of its other missions (art. 12). For continuing training, the board meets in a special composition, separately from its other meetings: besides its chair, sixteen full members, including eight representatives of the administration, four of employees’ trade unions and four of employers’ professional organisations (art. 13).
• Framed decisions. This board approves, among other things, the procedures manual, the review of programmes, the following year’s action plan, the annual budget and the evaluation reports (art. 14).
• A dedicated unit. A permanent administrative unit prepares the annual action plan, receives and reviews funding applications, signs the contracts, monitors the actions and carries out checks (art. 17). Its missions are incompatible with the Office’s other missions (art. 18).
• An autonomous, audited budget. Resources include a percentage of the proceeds of the vocational training tax, aid from public or private bodies and any other resource reserved for continuing training (art. 23). OFPPT’s unit and the GIACs are audited every year by two chartered accountants (art. 24).

For the company, the effect is concrete: a single point of contact for its applications, funding rules approved by a board on which employers and unions sit, and audited accounts. For a foreign-owned subsidiary used to group-level training budgets, it also means that the rules applying to its Moroccan entity are set in Morocco, by this board and this manual.

What still depends on implementing texts?

Nine provisions refer to “regulation” or to a ministerial order. As long as the corresponding text is not published, the provision does not apply (art. 32).

Before relying on any of these provisions, check with OFPPT whether its implementing text has been published in the Official Bulletin, and on what date.

The regulatory texts on the vocational training tax, for their part, remain in force (art. 32).

Which procedures manual applies today?

The law provides for a new manual, approved by the board (art. 19), and keeps the earlier CSF manual until it is replaced (art. 32). Which one applies to your financial year is the first question to ask OFPPT.

The question is not theoretical. The manual sets the rates, bases, ceilings, deadlines and documents. The reference rules we apply are 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider, 40% for unplanned training and, for in-house training, the same rates applied to a retained cost of MAD 800 per day per participant, with ceilings based on the declared TFP; for engineering, GIAC covers 70%, capped at MAD 100,000 excluding VAT. They come from the CSF procedures manual of May 2006, with its Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014, and from the GIAC manual, with its Amendment No. 1 of the same date: this is the framework in force. Any amount calculated with them is indicative, before ceilings, with no commitment. Unofficial sources quote other rates and other ceilings: we do not use them.

In case a new manual replaces the earlier one, record in each file the version of the manual applied and the date of the rule used. How to read the reimbursement rule is detailed in our article CSF reimbursement rates: reading the rule, the ceilings and the TFP.

What should you do while confirmations are pending?

Apply what is certain, document what is not, and never build a budget on an amount presented as certain.

• Ask OFPPT in writing which version of the procedures manual applies to your financial year.
  
• Record in each file the version of the manual and the date of the rule applied.
  
• Check with the GIAC for your sector its accreditation and its current agreement.
  
• Use no rate or ceiling taken from an unofficial source.
  
• Check the qualification of the training providers you select.
  
• Prepare to handle time credit requests as soon as their terms are published.
  
• Keep every document, in anticipation of a document and on-site inspection (art. 26 and 28).
  

For the management overview, see our guide to OFPPT special training contracts for CEOs and HR; for the practical process, see OFPPT CSF application step by step.