Company CFA: creating your own in-house apprentice training center

Recruiting apprentices trained elsewhere, on programs designed for others, using tools your teams don’t work with: that’s the daily reality of many companies struggling to find the skills they need. Since the « Avenir professionnel » law of 5 September 2018, another path exists: creating your own company CFA — an in-house apprentice training center (centre de formation d’apprentis) — that trains apprentices directly in the company’s trades, methods and culture. Creation is now free — no more prior regional administrative authorization — but it remains framed by precise obligations. Here are the conditions, the steps and the points to watch before opening an in-house CFA without unpleasant surprises.

The company CFA in a nutshell

A company CFA is an apprentice training center created and run by a company (or a group of companies) to train its own apprentices, on its own or with partners. Legally, it is a CFA like any other: it follows the same rules, the same legal missions and the same funding model as any center. What changes is who runs it and why — the company trains first and foremost in order to recruit. If the distinction between a CFA and a standard training organization is still unclear to you, our article on the differences between a CFA and a training organization lays the groundwork before going further.

What the « Avenir professionnel » law changed

Before 2018, opening a CFA required an agreement with the region and prior administrative authorization — a lock that effectively reserved apprenticeship for established players. The law of 5 September 2018 liberalized creation: no more prior regional authorization. Any company can now create its in-house CFA, through three possible setups:

• directly, by housing the CFA activity within the existing structure;
• via a dedicated subsidiary, created specifically to carry the apprenticeship training activity;
• jointly with others, by teaming up with other companies from the same sector or the same employment area to pool costs and apprentice numbers.

Freedom to create does not mean absence of rules: the operating conditions are precise and cumulative.

Why bringing apprentice training in-house can be a smart move

Beyond recruitment difficulties, internalizing training has a documented economic rationale. A study by Jozef Konings and Stijn Vanormelingen, “The Impact of Training on Productivity and Wages: Firm-Level Evidence,” published in 2015 in the Review of Economics and Statistics, shows from firm-level data that employer-provided training raises employees’ productivity more than it raises their wages — in other words, the gap between the productivity gain and the wage cost makes the training investment profitable for the company (see the study on Google Scholar). An in-house CFA takes this logic one step further: the company designs the content itself, aligns the pedagogy with its actual jobs, and retains apprentices who are already integrated into its teams.

The conditions to meet before opening an in-house CFA

Three structuring conditions apply to any company that wants to become a CFA:

• Declare a training activity: obtain a training activity declaration number (NDA, numéro de déclaration d’activité) from the DREETS (regional labor authority), expressly mentioning apprenticeship. If you are starting from scratch, our guide on how to create a training organization walks through the declaration procedure.
• Write the activity into the articles of association: the apprenticeship training activity must appear in the statutes of the carrying structure (the company itself or its dedicated subsidiary).
• Obtain Qualiopi certification for the « actions de formation par apprentissage » (apprenticeship training) category: it is essential to receive OPCO funding under the NPEC. No Qualiopi, no funding — and therefore no business model.

The 6 steps to create your company CFA

1. Frame the project and the legal setup. Target number of apprentices, trades and certifications prepared (RNCP diplomas or titles), chosen setup: in-house, dedicated subsidiary or multi-company CFA. This is also the time to compare with the lighter alternatives (see below).
2. Amend the statutes and declare the activity. Write apprenticeship training into the articles of association, then file the training activity declaration (NDA) with the DREETS, mentioning apprenticeship.
3. Build the business model on the NPEC. The CFA is funded through the niveau de prise en charge (NPEC), the level of funding coverage paid by the OPCO for each contract, set per certification — supplemented where applicable by ancillary costs (accommodation, meals, first equipment). Budget certification by certification.
4. Structure the team and the educational organization. Trainers, educational coordination, apprentice support: the Qualiopi framework expects staff dedicated to the CFA’s missions (indicator 20). On the company side, each apprentice must be supervised by a maître d’apprentissage (apprenticeship master) meeting the legal conditions.
5. Prepare for and pass the Qualiopi audit. The certification must cover the « actions de formation par apprentissage » category, which activates indicators specific to CFAs — including indicator 33 on apprentice support. As a newly declared structure, you will be audited as a « nouvel entrant » (new entrant), with adapted indicators: the auditor assesses your planned organization, not a track record you don’t yet have.
6. Put the legal missions in place, then sign the first contracts. The improvement council, the designated referents, analytical accounting and results publication (detailed below) must be operational from launch.

The legal missions of a CFA, even an in-house one

Creating a company CFA means taking on all the obligations of a fully-fledged CFA:

• supporting apprentices throughout their journey, including socially and professionally, and securing transitions — up to and including handling a possible apprenticeship contract termination, which follows a precise procedure;
• setting up a conseil de perfectionnement (improvement council), the body that oversees the center’s educational organization and operation;
• appointing a disability referent and a mobility referent (national and international);
• keeping separate analytical accounting for the apprenticeship activity, distinct from the company’s other activities;
• publishing results indicators, notably diploma pass rates and job placement rates — figures the Qualiopi auditor checks under indicator 3, specific to CFAs.

UFA or subcontracting: the lighter alternatives

If the number of apprentices does not yet justify a full structure, two intermediate formulas exist:

• The UFA (unité de formation par apprentissage, apprenticeship training unit): under an agreement with an existing CFA, the company delivers all or part of the training on its premises, while the CFA retains overall administrative and educational responsibility.
• Educational subcontracting: a partnership with a CFA that holds the contracts and entrusts part of the training to the company, without the company becoming a CFA itself.

These setups let you test internalization before opening a CFA of your own — with the option of switching later, once volume and team have stabilized.

Points to watch before taking the plunge

• The CFA-specific Qualiopi indicators come on top of the common core: reinforced apprentice support, dedicated staff, publication of results rates. Do not prepare for the audit as if it were that of a standard training organization.
• The business model rests on the NPEC, set per certification and subject to revision: a decrease arbitrated by the professional branch can weaken a budget built too tight.
• Dedicated staff is a structural cost item: an in-house CFA cannot be run on the margins of an already stretched HR department.
• New-entrant status at the audit is an opportunity — adapted indicators — but it requires demonstrating a credible planned organization, backed by documentary evidence.

Take action

A company CFA hinges as much on documentary preparation as on the educational project. The Kit Certif Complet (€297, 14-day guarantee) provides evidence templates for all 32 indicators, including those specific to apprenticeship providers. The ebook “Créer son organisme de formation en 30 jours” (€67) guides you through the activity declaration and the administrative foundations, and the Pack complet (€347) bundles both. Browse all our blog articles to dig into each step.