Endowments, contributions, co-construction of training courses, multiple financiers... numerous mechanisms allow you to co-finance the Personal Training Account (CPF) of your employees. Added to this is the transfer of DIF (Individual Right to Training) hours to the CPF. This can allow the employee to recover up to €1,800 if it is carried out by June 30. Communicating on these two aspects, co-financing of the CPF and DIF, is a win-win strategy for the company and your employees. Emmanuelle ROBERT, OPCO and CPF project manager at ORSYS, presents the terms and conditions applicable in the private sector.
1 – What is the role of the company in terms of CPF?
One might think that the Personal Training Account does not concern the company to the extent that the initiative to mobilize the CPF to finance training lies with the person holding the account. The My Account Training platform (mobile application and website www.moncompteformation.gouv.fr) allows the CPF holder to choose and pay – in complete autonomy – for training with the rights recorded on their individual account.
However, businesses are not excluded from the system. In fact, the law introduced a logic of co-construction between the employer and the employee. Subject to mutual agreement, the CPF therefore allows bring together the expectations of employees and the interests of the company in a win-win situation. Companies have several cards to play when it comes to the CPF. It can, for example, authorise employees to carry out their training during working hours. It can also agree to finance part of the training. This is the case if the balance of an employee's CPF is insufficient to fund the entire course. But it is above all with co-construction contributions that it can act strategically.
2 – How does the co-construction contribution work? How is it different from endowments?
Since September 2020, on the space for employers and financiers (EDEF), companies can award grants to their employees electronically. This consists of paying training rights to employees' CPFs in addition to those acquired through their professional activity. In just a few clicks, businesses can:
- participate in individual training projects;
- allocate additional rights to some or all employees;
- make allocations linked to regulatory obligations;
- pay corrective contributions.
Since December 2020There's a new service on the My Training Account platform. It's called co-construction contributions service or the automated contributions service. This service allows a financier to automate its matching policy on the basis of predefined criteria and credits delegated to the Caisse des Dépôts. In other words, employers can target funding for training that is of particular interest to the company. This automated contribution policy falls within the framework of social dialogue via a company agreement.
More precisely, co-construction contributions allow financiers, particularly employers and regions, to:
1. choose criteria that will be automatically applied to complete the rights of targeted users
2. or direct training towards professions in shortage
It is therefore possible to define one or more top-up rules for the granting of additional funding from among three categories of criteria. Criteria linked to the beneficiary, the course and the balance available on the user's CPF. Clearly, the company has control over the top-ups it puts in place: it can target a specific beneficiary population and/or specific training courses. It is also up to the company to determine the financial arrangements. This may be a fixed maximum amount or a percentage of the initial cost of the training, subject to a ceiling.
3 – One Does the company benefit from communicating about the CPF?
Yes indeed. Making employees aware of the different co-financing possibilities is a winning strategy. It also seems wise to underline, at the time of this communication, that many other funders, such as the regions and professional branches, are likely to contribute.
The automated co-financing system is being implemented gradually. For the moment, three regions have signed a contribution agreement with the Caisse des Dépôts:
- Pays de la Loire: this involves in particular encouraging employees and companies to take advantage of the period of health crisis to train, with criteria linked to the sector of activity and the type of training;
- Hauts-de-France: only for job seekers;
- Occitanie: priority goes to aeronautics employees.
As for the professional sectors, the process is also underway. It was OPCO Atlas which got the ball rolling to meet the needs of the technical design office sector. Other branches have also approached the Caisse des Dépôts with a view to an agreement.
Certainly, this co-financing system primarily benefits CPF account holders. It can allow employees to obtain additional budgets to complete their training project instead of postponing it, or even giving up on it. But it is also doubly beneficial for the company:
- On the one hand, it matches an employee's training project with the company's development strategy;
- on the other hand, it creates a additional envelope within the company's training budgets.
To summarize, the CPF still allows its holder to acquire €500 per year with a ceiling of €5,000 (€800 for the least qualified people with a ceiling of €8,000). Sums that should not be overlooked and to which potential contributions from other co-financiers can be added.
Finally, increasing the skills of employees is always beneficial for the company.
4 – And for the transfer of DIF hours, is there still time to communicate with employees?
Perfectly! This is the final stretch for the transfer of DIF hours, which the CPF has replaced. Employees have until June 30 to declare their DIF hours obtained up to 2014 on the My Account Training application or online at www.moncompteformation.gouv.fr.
There’s still time to remind them! They must enter their balance of DIF hours, recorded in particular on the December 2014 pay slip. If they have not already done so, they must first create their account on the platform. It may also be useful to let them know that the hours entered are automatically converted into euros. For an employee who has never used their DIF, this can represent up to €1,800. This credit supplements the rights in euros already recorded in My Training Account and therefore increases the purchasing power of training.
After 30 June, DIF hours can no longer be accumulated and will be lost for good. While it is difficult to estimate the number of people affected by the switchover between now and the end of June, the DIF envelope still to be transferred to Mon Compte Formation could represent between 10 and 20 billion euros at national level.
