Blocs de compétences: definition, obligations and strategy for your training organisation

“Can we sell a single module of our RNCP title through the CPF?” The answer comes down to three French words — blocs de compétences — and it changes how you build a catalogue. Introduced by the law of 5 September 2018, these skill blocks allow a professional certification to be split into units that can be validated separately, funded individually, and kept for life once passed. For a training organisation, this is both a genuine commercial opportunity and a field of precise obligations: exact official titles, certifier authorisation, compliant assessment. Here is how the system works and how to make the most of it without missteps.

What a bloc de compétences is: the legal definition

Article L. 6113-1 of the French Labour Code, introduced by the law of 5 September 2018 on the freedom to choose one’s professional future, defines blocs de compétences as “homogeneous and coherent sets of skills contributing to the autonomous exercise of a professional activity”, which can be assessed and validated. Three ideas structure this definition:

• Homogeneous and coherent: a block is neither a course chapter nor a marketing module, but a subset of the reference framework with professional meaning of its own;
• Contributing to the autonomous exercise of an activity: each block must be usable in a work situation, independently of the others;
• Assessable and validatable separately: each block has its own assessment methods, defined by the certifier.

The division into blocks is mandatory for every certification registered with the RNCP (the national register of professional certifications). Conversely, Répertoire Spécifique certifications have no blocks: they attest to a complementary or transversal skill that forms a single whole — one of the fundamental differences between the two registers, covered in our guide on registering a certification with the RNCP or the Répertoire Spécifique.

What blocks are for: modularity, permanent acquisition, bridges

The system pursues a clear goal: making certifications accessible to adults who cannot follow a long pathway in one go. In practice:

• Modular pathways: a candidate can prepare and validate blocks one by one, at their own pace, alternating training periods and periods of work;
• Permanently acquired partial validation: a validated block stays validated, with no time limit — a candidate who interrupts their pathway never starts from scratch;
• Bridges with VAE: recognition of prior experience (VAE) can cover one or more blocks; a candidate can obtain some blocks through VAE and others through training, an arrangement structured by the VAE pathway advisor.

This logic of cumulative units matches what English-language research calls stackable credentials. A study by Bailey and Belfield published in 2017 by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University (“Stackable Credentials: Awards for the Future?”, Working Paper No. 92) shows that stackable credentials do make it easier for adults to return to training, but that wage gains concentrate mainly when stacking leads to a full certification — an unfinished stack pays little (see the study on Google Scholar). The direct lesson for your sales approach: selling a standalone block is legitimate, but guiding the trainee towards the full certification is what creates the most value for them.

What blocks change for your catalogue

Selling a course preparing for a single block

This is the most direct commercial use: offering a course that prepares for one block of an RNCP certification. The advantages are real:

• CPF eligibility: a course leading to one or more blocks of an active RNCP certification can be funded through the CPF and published on EDOF, the official CPF marketplace, via your EDOF listing;
• Shorter format, more accessible price: where a full title requires hundreds of hours, a block takes a few dozen — a format matching the average CPF balance of a working adult;
• Wider audience: employees in post, who cannot take six months off, become realistic clients for a block followed alongside their job.

Worth noting: Répertoire Spécifique certifications, which have no blocks, are now subject to a CPF funding cap of €1,500; RNCP blocks do not fall under that cap, which strengthens the case for an RNCP positioning when building a modular offer.

The obligations to respect

Selling a block cannot be improvised:

1. Being legitimate on the certification: either you are the certifier yourself, or you are an organisation preparing for the certification or authorised (habilité) by the certifier. Since decree no. 2025-500, this authorisation follows a strict regulatory framework — training and/or assessment scope, compliance with the reference framework, minimum hours — detailed in our article on the authorised partner organisation.
2. Assessment and validation by the certifier: it is the certifier (or the organisation it has authorised to assess) that validates the block according to its assessment framework. Training towards a block without organising its compliant assessment means selling a pathway with no outcome — and stepping outside the CPF framework.
3. Exact wording in quotes and programmes: the block’s exact title as it appears on the RNCP record, the RNCP code of the parent certification, and the assessment methods. An approximate or embellished title is a source of audit findings and disputes with funders.

The limits of the system: what blocks do not do

Common belief	Reality
“Validating all the blocks awards the title”	No: the conditions for awarding the full certification are set by the certifier (final exam, required experience, dissertation…)
“Every certification has blocks”	No: only RNCP certifications do; the Répertoire Spécifique has none
“I can slice my offer however I like”	No: blocks are defined in the RNCP record by the certifier, not by the training organisation
“A block is just a module of my programme”	Not necessarily: your teaching structure must align with the official blocks, not the other way round

Keep the first line in mind — it is the most counter-intuitive: stacking blocks does not automatically deliver the full title. A candidate who has validated every block must still meet the awarding conditions set by the certifier. Your sales pitch must be honest on this point, or you create an expectation you do not control.

Catalogue strategy: slicing to unlock funding

For an organisation whose flagship offer is a long pathway, the block strategy consists of packaging the same content behind several entry doors: the full pathway for jobseekers and funded career-changers, and per-block courses for employees in post who use their CPF on a short format. Each block becomes a separate EDOF listing, a separate quote, a separate target audience — without duplicating the instructional design, since the reference framework is the same.

Two safeguards: the slicing must follow the official blocks of the RNCP record (not a commercial salami-slice), and every block sale must come with clear information on the remaining path to the full certification — which is what separates a certifying course from a merely qualifying one.

Take action

Structuring an offer around blocks demands impeccable programmes, quotes and assessment evidence: the Complete Kit Certif at €297 provides the compliant templates to document every pathway, the ebook Create Your Training Organisation in 30 Days at €67 guides your certification positioning from launch, and the Kit + Ebook Pack at €347 combines both to build a catalogue that is fundable end to end.