OFPPT CSF Application Step by Step: Stages, Evidence and Checklist

Where does a CSF file start?

With the training plan, before any session, and with one check: which procedures manual applies to your financial year, and on what conditions your company can access the scheme.

Special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF) are the scheme through which OFPPT, the Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail and Morocco’s public vocational training office, reimburses part of the cost of employees’ continuing training. Its legal framework is Law No. 60-17 on the organisation of continuing training, and its practical rules sit in a procedures manual. For the HR team of a Moroccan site, including the subsidiary of a foreign group, this means a file built on the Moroccan entity’s own plan, its own evidence and its own declared training tax.

The order matters because the regime of an action is decided before it takes place. The reference rules are 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider and 40% for unplanned training, within ceilings set according to the declared vocational training tax (taxe de formation professionnelle, TFP), the tax employers pay for the benefit of OFPPT. These rules are those of the CSF procedures manual of May 2006 and its Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014; any resulting amount is indicative, before ceilings. The manual defines planned actions as those entered in an annual training plan that results from a training engineering study; under the amendment, a plan resulting from engineering not validated by the relevant GIAC counts as unplanned training.

The full process comes down to eight steps.

The deadlines for filing applications and reimbursement files should be confirmed with OFPPT for each financial year, before the first action.

If the needs analysis (step 2) counts as training engineering, have its eligibility checked by the GIAC for your sector before committing the spend. GIACs, the “groupements interprofessionnels à l’appui du conseil”, are inter-professional advisory groups set up by employers’ organisations that fund part of training engineering. How the two schemes combine is presented on our page OFPPT special training contracts (CSF) and GIAC funding.

How do you write the plan and the action sheets?

One sheet per action, linked to a job role and a need, containing everything required to cost the action, have it approved and prove it afterwards.

Each action sheet states:

• the title and the objective, phrased as a skill that can be observed on the job;
• the job role or roles concerned and where the need comes from: a regulatory requirement, a customer or standard requirement, a performance objective;
• the population, the headcount and, where possible, the named list of participants;
• the duration in days and hours, and the planned dates;
• the place and the format: open course, on-site course or in-house training, delivered in person;
• the training provider selected and its qualification;
• the detailed cost of the action;
• the target scheme: planned, unplanned or in-house training.

OFPPT publishes the CSF forms and form models on its private companies page (in French), with the list of training fields to enter on the F2 sheets; the manual provides for an F2 form identifying each training action, planned or not. The CSF only covers in-person training: distance learning or virtual classroom training is not eligible.

Take a fish cannery in Agadir preparing its season. Hygiene training for seasonal operators, whose funding should be checked with OFPPT, must be entered in the plan before the teams arrive, with sessions timed around shift rotations. The line manager who attends a course lasting several days goes on a separate sheet, with their own dates. Two populations, two calendars, two sheets: that is what makes the file readable at review.

The law sets a point of vigilance on the provider. Training is delivered by qualified institutions, providers and companies, under conditions set by regulation (Law No. 60-17, art. 9), and qualification is withdrawn from a provider that fails to meet its commitments (art. 30). Check this before signing.

What evidence should you keep for each session?

The evidence that shows the planned training actually took place, with the planned people, over the planned duration, and that it produced learning. It is produced during the session; it cannot be rebuilt afterwards.

Inspirra is the consulting and training management platform built by Solvitas, ACG’s start-up studio. It ties each piece of evidence to its session and its action. On the day the reimbursement file is assembled, or the day of an inspection, the documents are already gathered, dated and consistent with one another. The full course of a session is described in before, during and after the training.

Session evidence is not the whole file. It is completed by the administrative and financial documents set by the procedures manual: agreement with the training provider, invoices, proof of payment. Confirm the full list of documents with OFPPT before filing.

How do you file the application and follow the review?

Under the procedures manual in force, within its deadlines, then through active follow-up until payment. A file filed and forgotten is a file waiting for a supplement nobody has seen requested.

OFPPT has an online portal, portal.ofppt.ma, with a login area and a registration request for new users. According to OFPPT’s CSF page (in French), this portal is where the request for access to the CSF system is filed, leading to an access certificate valid for the financial year; OFPPT has also opened online filing of the technical file there, and the financial file is filed with the CSF management unit.

For follow-up, a simple table is enough, provided it is kept up to date. One line per action, with:

• the title of the action and the file reference;
• the filing date and the version of the manual applied;
• the status of the review and any additional documents requested;
• the date the additional documents were sent;
• the amount simulated before ceiling, presented as an estimate;
• the amount notified by OFPPT and the payment date.

The simulation is done with the reimbursement simulator, which applies the reference rules before ceiling. How to read it is detailed in our article CSF reimbursement rates: reading the rule, the ceilings and the TFP.

Which mistakes weaken a CSF file?

Almost all of them come down to timing and evidence. The law provides that a breach of commitments can lead to the partial or total cancellation of the action (Law No. 60-17, art. 29), and that amounts unduly received must be repaid (art. 31).

1. Launching the training before entering it in the plan. The action risks falling under the unplanned training regime.
2. Changing participants or dates without updating the file. The attendance record no longer matches the application. Under Amendment No. 2 to the manual, the company may cancel an action or change its days, venue, training provider or timetable, provided it notifies the CSF management unit with a notice (model 3) at least 24 hours before the planned start.
3. Leaving attendance records incomplete. A half-day without a signature is a half-day without evidence.
4. Issuing certificates without a number. They are linked neither to a session nor to a result.
5. Accepting an invoice that does not reflect the action. Title, dates and headcount must match the action sheet.
6. Filing late. The manual’s deadlines cannot be made up.
7. Selecting a provider without checking its qualification. The risk carries over to the funded action (art. 9 and 30).
8. Scattering the file between departments. On inspection day, every document must be found within minutes.

Which checklist should you follow, from plan to payment?

This one, in order. It complements the official list of documents, which only OFPPT can set.

Before the year

• The version of the applicable procedures manual is confirmed by OFPPT.
  
• The company’s conditions of access to the scheme are checked.
  
• The needs analysis by job role is done, and its GIAC eligibility checked before the spend.
  
• The plan is prioritised, budgeted, dated and approved by management.
  
• One sheet per action states the job role, the need, the population, the duration, the dates, the format, the provider, the cost and the target scheme.
  

Before each session

• The application is filed within the manual’s deadlines.
  
• The training provider’s qualification is checked.
  
• Participants are invited by name.
  

During and after each session

• QR-code attendance records are complete, session by session.
  
• The placement test and the final test are marked and archived.
  
• End-of-session evaluations are collected and summarised.
  
• A numbered certificate is issued to each participant.
  
• The training report is written.
  

Before the reimbursement claim

• The invoice matches the action sheet: title, dates, headcount.
  
• Proof of payment is gathered.
  
• The list of reimbursement file documents has been confirmed with OFPPT.
  

After payment

• The notified amount is reconciled with the simulated amount, and the gap is analysed.
  
• The complete file is archived, ready for a document and on-site inspection (art. 26 and 28).
  
• The review of the action feeds the next year’s plan.
  

For the management overview, see our guide to OFPPT special training contracts for CEOs and HR; for the most common questions, see our FAQ on OFPPT special training contracts.