The Caisse des Dépôts EDOF/CPF quality control: the 19-criteria grid and how to respond

One audit-season morning, a registered email from the Caisse des Dépôts lands in the inbox: “opening of a quality control on training actions listed on EDOF.” Many French training providers mistake this letter for a new Qualiopi audit campaign or a DREETS inspection — it is neither. Since March 2025, the Caisse des Dépôts has run its own quality-control mechanism for CPF-funded offers, with its own grid, deadlines and sanctions. Here is how it works and how to prepare before your organisation is the one selected.

A control distinct from the Qualiopi audit and the DREETS inspection

Three bodies can now control a CPF-listed provider, and it is essential not to confuse them:

• The Qualiopi certification body audits, every three years (with a surveillance audit at 18 months), compliance with the Référentiel National Qualité — the condition for accessing all French public and pooled funding, CPF included. See our guide on how a Qualiopi audit unfolds.
• DREETS (the regional labour authority) runs administrative and financial inspections under the Labour Code, which can go as far as suspending the activity declaration — a topic covered in our article on DREETS inspections of training providers.
• The Caisse des Dépôts, finally, manages EDOF and specifically controls the real quality of actions published on Mon Compte Formation, independently of any Qualiopi certification already obtained.

This third process is the most recent and the least well known among providers, even though it concerns roughly 1,000 training organisations a year — a sample large enough that the odds of being selected rise with every new session published on the platform.

The grid: 19 criteria and 53 indicators

The grid published by the Caisse des Dépôts is organised into 19 criteria, broken down into 53 precise indicators, each accompanied by examples of the supporting evidence expected. It follows the spirit of the Référentiel National Qualité but adds specifics tied to CPF funding.

Three axes of control

• Eight pedagogical criteria: coherence of objectives, relevance of content, how up to date the materials are, trainers’ real competence, ability to assess learning outcomes. These largely overlap with the evidence already expected for indicators 6, 7 and 11 of the Qualiopi framework.
• Seven administrative criteria: internal organisation, management of staff and subcontractors — see our guide on CPF and Qualiopi subcontracting —, pricing consistency, and the ability to support each trainee from initial positioning through to the completion certificate.
• Two purpose criteria: the action’s genuine professional purpose and its demonstrable impact on the beneficiary’s career progress — an area of heightened scrutiny for so-called “comfort” courses with no real outcome.

Criterion 8: the new pricing-consistency rule

Criterion 8 deserves particular attention: it is entirely dedicated to whether the listed price matches the action’s actual content, and it includes three indicators with no equivalent in Qualiopi. A price disproportionate to the duration, teaching format or level of supervision now counts, on its own, as an identified non-conformity — even in the total absence of any fraudulent intent. If your price list has not been reviewed since your first offers went live, our guide on pricing grids for professional training sets out a method to secure it.

How an EDOF quality control unfolds

The procedure follows a standardised, multi-step sequence:

1. Opening notification: the Caisse des Dépôts sends a first email, then a registered email informing the provider that a control has opened.
2. Scope of the control: a second message, sent by the controller team mandated for the campaign, specifies which training action(s) are being evaluated and the exact list of supporting evidence expected.
3. Response deadline: the provider has 10 business days to submit every requested document — a short window that assumes files are already organised rather than assembled under pressure.
4. Review: the Caisse des Dépôts reviews the submitted file, with a processing time of roughly 11 business days once the file is complete.

This tight calendar echoes a logic EDOF-listed providers already know from the platform: CPF payment processing also runs on strict deadlines that leave little room for last-minute documentation.

Preparing before you get controlled

Alongside its grid, the Caisse des Dépôts published a self-assessment guide for providers listed on EDOF. Using it in advance, rather than scrambling once a control opens, turns an imposed exercise into a preventive one:

• Start from your existing Qualiopi files. Most pedagogical evidence (programmes, evaluations, trainer files) overlaps with what your audit already requires — our list of mandatory Qualiopi documents remains a solid working base.
• Audit your price list, action by action. This is the newest area, and the one your usual Qualiopi preparation least covers.
• Check consistency between the published offer and what is actually delivered: the duration announced on EDOF versus the duration actually followed, the programme’s content versus the materials genuinely used.
• Formalise your subcontractor tracking if part of your CPF actions is delegated to third-party trainers or organisations — a point explicitly covered by the grid’s administrative criteria.

Sanctions for non-conformity: a graduated scale

Unlike a DREETS-ordered NDA suspension or a Qualiopi withdrawal, the outcome of an EDOF quality control follows a progressive logic: a warning, refusal to pay for the controlled session, a demand to reimburse an amount wrongly received and, only as a last resort, temporary suspension or permanent delisting from the platform. This gradation is not unique to the Caisse des Dépôts: it matches what regulatory theory calls an “enforcement pyramid,” where the vast majority of cases are resolved through a cooperative response before any recourse to the harshest sanction. The principle was formalised by legal scholars Ian Ayres and John Braithwaite in their reference work Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate (1992), which shows that effective regulation rests on this gradation rather than on the immediate threat of the heaviest penalty (see the scholarship citing Ayres and Braithwaite on Google Scholar). In practical terms for a training provider, this means a first alert handled properly — a complete, point-by-point response within the 10-day deadline — avoids reaching the pyramid’s upper tiers in the vast majority of cases. If a delisting is notified regardless, the available appeals are detailed in our article on suspension and delisting of an EDOF account.

Take action

The Complete Kit Certif (€297, 14-day guarantee, documents in French) includes the templates and procedures that cover most of the EDOF grid’s pedagogical and administrative requirements, alongside the 32 Qualiopi indicators. Still building your catalogue and price list as you launch? The ebook Créer son organisme de formation en 30 jours (€67) lays the groundwork in the right order, or choose the kit + ebook pack for €347.