DREETS inspection of vocational training providers: what gets checked, and how to prepare

Many training-provider founders confuse two quite distinct systems: the Qualiopi audit, run by a private certification body, and the administrative and financial inspection, run by the State. The latter is far from hypothetical — it reaches several thousand providers every year, often with no suspicion of fraud whatsoever, simply because an OPCO, the Caisse des Dépôts, or a region flagged a file for review. Here is what actually gets checked, how an inspection unfolds, and what changed with the anti-fraud law that took effect this summer.

Qualiopi and the DREETS inspection: two authorities, two purposes

Qualiopi certification attests that a provider meets the national quality framework (32 indicators); it is issued by a private, Cofrac-accredited certification body for three years. The inspection of vocational training, governed by Title VI of the Labour Code (Articles L6361-1 to L6363-2), is carried out by the public authority — specifically the regional control services (SRC) attached to the DREETS (DRIEETS in the Paris region, DEETS overseas). Its purpose: to verify that training actions genuinely took place, their nature and compliance, and that public and pooled funds received (OPCO, France Travail, Caisse des Dépôts, regional councils, Agefiph, etc.) were properly used.

Direct consequence: a valid Qualiopi certificate offers no protection against an unfavourable DREETS inspection, and conversely, a clean DREETS inspection does not excuse you from preparing for the surveillance audit at 18 months. These are two separate frameworks, two separate timelines, two separate authorities.

What inspectors actually examine

An inspection typically covers:

• the declaration of activity (number, mentions, consistency with the activity actually carried out);
• training agreements and contracts, their mandatory mentions and consistency with the invoiced actions;
• proof of delivery: sign-in sheets, programmes actually delivered, teaching materials, completion certificates;
• the pedagogical and financial report (BPF) and its consistency with the accounts and invoices issued;
• the origin and use of funds received for continuing vocational training.

It is up to the provider to justify both the origin of the funds received and the reality of the expenses incurred — the burden of proof sits with the inspected provider, not the administration. This is exactly why a well-kept evidence file matters, the same discipline required for the Qualiopi audit, just applied to different documents.

How an inspection unfolds

An inspection may be documentary (records sent by post or electronically) or carried out on site, at the provider’s premises. Control officers hold a right of access to information, allowing them to request any relevant document, including from third parties (funders, subcontractors, beneficiaries). At the end of the inspection, the administration notifies its findings: this opens an adversarial procedure, during which the provider can submit further evidence or contest the findings before any decision to reject expenses or impose a sanction is made.

The sanctions at stake

The Labour Code sets out several levels of financial sanction:

• Article L6362-7: when expenses are rejected following an inspection, the provider must repay the Public Treasury a sum equal to the rejected amount — jointly with its de jure or de facto managers, which sets aside the usual protection of limited liability;
• Article L6362-6: an action not backed by the required documents is simply deemed never to have taken place, triggering full repayment of the sums received for it;
• Article L6362-7-2: in cases of established fraud — the intentional use of false documents to obtain funding or evade an obligation — the sanction is more severe.

These sanctions are independent of any non-conformities found during a Qualiopi audit: a provider can be perfectly compliant with the quality framework while having a poorly kept funding file, and vice versa.

What the June 2026 anti-fraud law changes

Law n° 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 on the fight against social and tax fraud, whose vocational-training provisions took effect on 27 June 2026, significantly strengthens inspection tools: wider data-sharing between administrations and funders, the possibility for investigators to use an assumed identity (notably for online checks of remote training), and a greater role for OPCOs and France Compétences in flagging suspicious files. In practice, coordination between the bodies that detect anomalies is improving — reducing the odds that a poorly kept file stays under the radar for long.

This is not an isolated move: a study by economist Adrian Ziderman on funding mechanisms for vocational training (IZA Policy Paper No. 110) points out that public subsidies disconnected from objective outcomes structurally create incentives for gaming the system, or outright fraud — which is precisely why public authorities rely on regular ex-post inspections rather than ex-ante trust.

Reducing your risk: the right habits

• Keep an evidence file per session from the very first trainee, not just when an audit or inspection is looming: agreement, programme as actually delivered, sign-in sheets, assessments, completion certificate.
• Ensure consistency between the declared BPF, the accounts and the invoices issued — this is the first cross-check an inspector runs.
• Respect the document retention periods: a document destroyed too early can no longer serve as evidence, however real the underlying action was.
• Log complaints and incidents in a dated register: it also serves as evidence of good faith in the event of an inspection.
• If in doubt about a mandatory mention, check the guide to the 32 Qualiopi indicators: the documentary rigour it requires largely overlaps with what a DREETS inspector looks for.

Take action

The Complete Kit Certif (€297, 14-day guarantee) provides model procedures and the evidence table for the 32 indicators — the same documentary discipline that limits the risk of an unfavourable inspection. To start on solid ground from day one, the ebook “Create your training organisation in 30 days” (€67) walks step by step through the declaration of activity, agreements and the BPF. The full pack (€347) bundles both at a preferential price.