Training Engineering Study Cost: What the GIAC Covers in Morocco

What makes up the cost of a training engineering study?

First, the consultancy’s fees excluding taxes, which are the basis for GIAC coverage. On top of them come costs the GIAC does not cover: VAT, the company’s internal time and the GIAC membership fee.

A word of context for readers new to the Moroccan scheme. A GIAC, short for “groupement interprofessionnel à l’appui du conseil” in the wording of Law No. 60-17 (art. 32), is an inter-professional advisory group set up by employers’ professional organisations, usually by sector, that reimburses part of the training engineering of its member companies. The training itself is reimbursed separately by OFPPT, Morocco’s public vocational training office, through its special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF).

Internal time is the item most often forgotten. A needs analysis calls on every line manager for an interview, on critical roles for tests or observation, and on management for arbitration. This time has to be planned outside production peaks, and it is not reimbursed. Also budget for the GIAC membership fee, provided for in its standard statutes, whose amount you obtain from the relevant GIAC.

What makes the price of a study vary?

The number of distinct job roles more than the headcount, then the depth of measurement and the state of the data. Two companies of the same size can require very different efforts.

Six factors drive the number of consultant days:

• Distinct roles. Two hundred operators in five roles take less work than sixty employees spread across thirty roles.
• Sites and teams. Several sites, shift teams or a seasonal workforce multiply the interviews and lengthen the timeline.
• Depth of measurement. Interviews alone cost less than placement tests and workstation observation, but they prove less.
• State of the data. Up-to-date job descriptions, a multi-skilling matrix and usable audit reports shorten the study; without them, they have to be built.
• The strategic diagnosis. If it exists, the engineering starts from written strategic directions; if it has to be done, it is a second study.
• Deliverables. A plan in the format of OFPPT’s sheets, presentations in French and Arabic, a presentation to several committees: all of them take writing time.

A packaging manufacturer in Kenitra training its shift teams on new hygiene requirements falls into the second profile: the study must cover three teams and rebuild the job descriptions, but on a single site.

How is the GIAC share calculated?

By applying a rate to the cost of the intervention excluding taxes, within a ceiling per company and the GIAC’s available funds. The reference rule is coverage of 70% of the engineering cost excluding tax, within a reimbursement cap of MAD 100,000.

These rates and this ceiling remain in force; the MAD 100,000 ceiling applies per year and per company. If the GIAC keeps a share of funded studies towards its operating costs, ask it whether that share reduces the reimbursement paid to the company.

Three clarifications avoid unpleasant surprises. The GIAC share is calculated on what was actually spent and supported by documents, not on a quote. It never exceeds the ceiling, whatever the cost of the study. And it remains probable income, never certain income: the GIAC’s commitments advisory committee (comité consultatif des engagements) rules on each application. ACG never promises an amount; we apply the rule, cite the source and simulate on your quote.

When is the company reimbursed, and what must it advance?

After the study: the company pays the consultancy in full, files its reimbursement claim, then receives the GIAC share. Third-party payment avoids this advance.

• The advance. Under the standard agreement, reimbursement comes after the intervention has been carried out and the provider paid in full by the company (art. 17). The company therefore finances the whole study, VAT included, until it is reimbursed.
• The file. It brings together the accounting documents for the expenses, the study report and a summary presentation of the resulting actions (art. 17).
• The timing. The period between the GIAC’s decision that the file is admissible and the reimbursement cannot exceed one month (art. 17); the model contract provides for payment by cheque within the month following receipt of the documents (art. XI). This is a procedural rule, not a guaranteed date.
• Third-party payment. Amendment No. 1 (avenant n° 1) of 2014 allows payment to be made directly to the consultancy, under a contract signed between the company, the consultancy and the GIAC, if the consultancy is a public training operator or a consulting and training body holding a valid qualification label.

The contract signed with the GIAC is enforceable for one year at most (art. 16). A study that drags on does not just cost time: it can fall outside the contract and delay the approval on which the rate of the plan’s planned actions depends.

How do you budget the engineering without promising an amount?

By entering the full cost, all taxes included, as an expense, and the simulated GIAC share as probable income, on its expected collection date. Then by measuring the study’s effect on the plan’s CSF files.

That effect is often greater than the GIAC share itself. Under the CSF manual, an action is planned only if it appears in a plan derived from engineering approved by the GIAC; otherwise, it falls under unplanned training. The reference rules of the CSF manual are 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider and 40% for unplanned training. The CSF manual also provides, for certain bands of declared vocational training tax (taxe de formation professionnelle, TFP), a more favourable reimbursement ceiling when the company has an approved strategic diagnosis study. The reimbursement simulator gives an order of magnitude for the plan’s actions; what goes into the retained cost of training is detailed in what training costs OFPPT reimburses.

For a finance team reporting to a group outside Morocco, this means showing the full cost of the study and, on a separate line, the simulated GIAC share as a forecast, never netted off the cost.

Before approving the study budget

• The quote details the days per step, excluding taxes, and the VAT.
  
• Ancillary costs are identified, and their coverage checked with the GIAC.
  
• Internal time for managers and employees is planned outside production peaks.
  
• The GIAC membership fee is paid and membership is up to date.
  
• The GIAC share is simulated with the reference rule, and presented as probable income.
  
• Cash flow covers the advance until reimbursement, or third-party payment is requested.
  
• The timeline allows the engineering to be approved before 30 June.
  
• The effect on the plan’s CSF files is simulated, with no amount presented as certain.
  

The full course of a funded engineering study is described in our GIAC training engineering guide; the points to check before the 2027 study, in GIAC training engineering 2027: what to check first.