PTP funding via Transitions Pro: how a French training provider should get organised

An employee going through a career change contacts you to fund their training through Transitions Pro — the former Fongecif — and you’re not entirely sure how this differs from your usual OPCO applications. The Projet de Transition Professionnelle (PTP, “occupational transition project”) follows its own rules, stricter on the nature of the certification targeted and on filing deadlines. Training providers who overlook this lose entire sessions for failing to plan the calendar. Here is how to structure your offer to capture this funding without surprises.

PTP: a different scheme from standard OPCO funding

The Projet de Transition Professionnelle replaced the congé individuel de formation (CIF, “individual training leave”) on 1 January 2019. It lets an employee take leave from their job, with pay maintained, to follow certifying training aimed at changing occupation or profession. Unlike the skills development plan funded by the employer’s OPCO, it is Transitions Pro — a network of regional joint interprofessional commissions (CPIRs), formerly Fongecif — that reviews and funds the application, independently of the employee’s company.

For your organisation, the difference is concrete: your contact is not an HR department but an individual employee, who must build their own file with their regional CPIR, with your support on the pedagogical documents.

The eligibility conditions the employee must meet

Before even discussing your offer, check that your prospective trainee ticks the boxes:

• Seniority: 24 months of employment, consecutive or not, including 12 months at the current company. For an employee on a fixed-term contract, the rule differs: 24 months of employment over the last 5 years, including 4 months on fixed-term contracts within the last 12 months.
• Certifying training registered with the RNCP, eligible for the personal training account. Purely qualifying training that isn’t registered with the National Directory of Professional Certifications does not open entitlement to PTP — a point worth checking before promising this funding to a prospect.
• Consistency of the project with the priorities set by the regional CPIR (qualification level targeted, occupations in short supply, size of the originating company), which can affect the coverage rate granted.

What your organisation must provide

1. A free preliminary positioning assessment. Transitions Pro expects the chosen provider to offer this assessment before training begins, to individualise the employee’s pathway. Build it into your sales process rather than treating it as a separately billable option.
2. A detailed training programme, with the same requirements as for any funder: a precise title, operational and assessable objectives, duration, teaching methods and assessment methods. See our guide on the mandatory clauses of a training programme.
3. A compliant training agreement, covering the clauses required by article D6353-1 — see our dedicated article on the mandatory clauses of the training agreement.
4. Proof of your current Qualiopi certification and of the RNCP registration of the certification targeted: these are the two documents the CPIR systematically checks before any funding decision.

The calendar to plan with your future trainee

This is the point most often underestimated by training providers used to OPCO applications, whose deadlines are shorter.

Step	Deadline before training starts
Leave request to the employer	4 months if training ≥ 6 months, 2 months if shorter
Employer’s response (silence = tacit approval)	Within 30 days of the request
Filing the funding application with the CPIR	At least 3 months ahead (permanent/temp contract), 2 months (fixed-term)
Response from the joint commission	Generally 1 month before training starts

In practice, an employee who contacts you less than three months before the desired session date has almost no chance of getting a PTP application processed in time. Communicate this calendar from the first conversation to avoid blocking a session seat on an application that’s doomed to arrive too late.

Funding caps and remaining costs

Training costs are covered by Transitions Pro within two cumulative caps: €18,000 excl. tax for the total training cost and €27.45 excl. tax per hour. If your quote stays under both thresholds, the employee in principle owes nothing toward the pedagogical costs. Beyond that, the difference is left to them — unless another funder covers the gap (CPF used as a top-up, for instance). One special case: employees whose average reference salary exceeds twice the minimum wage (SMIC) may face a remaining cost even under the caps.

Price your quote with these caps in mind: an hourly rate or total cost above these thresholds doesn’t make the application ineligible, but it shifts the difference onto the employee, which can effectively sink the funding if they cannot cover it.

Mistakes that sink a PTP application

• Offering training that isn’t RNCP-registered, assuming an in-house professional certification is enough: this is the most common rejection cause among providers new to the scheme.
• Underestimating the deadlines. An employee referred to you six weeks before their desired start date will, in the vast majority of cases, be unable to complete their CPIR file in time.
• Forgetting the free positioning assessment, which is nonetheless an expected part of the file and a differentiating sales argument against competitors who skip it.
• Failing to plan your Qualiopi renewal. A gap between your certificate’s expiry and your 3-year renewal audit blocks every application in progress, just as with any other funder.

Beyond the regulatory details, research on adult training funding schemes offers a useful point for your sales positioning: a study by Helsinger, Dikhtyar, Cummins and Hicks (2021, Innovation in Aging, Gerontological Society of America), based on interviews with 61 international adult education experts across 10 countries, found that the complexity and opacity of funding schemes is one of the main barriers to workers’ participation in continuing training — more so than a lack of individual motivation (see the study on Google Scholar). A provider who clearly explains PTP’s calendar and conditions to prospects turns a common administrative hurdle into a competitive advantage.

The link with your Qualiopi indicators

PTP directly involves several indicators of the National Quality Reference Framework. Indicator 1 requires clearly informing the public about available funding options, PTP included. Indicator 7 covers precisely the match between your content and the certification targeted — a point the CPIR examines with the same rigour as a Qualiopi auditor. And indicator 8 covers entry-level positioning, exactly the free service Transitions Pro expects before training begins.

Take action

Structuring a PTP-fundable offer means securing, upstream, your Qualiopi certification, the RNCP registration of your programmes, and a well-oiled positioning process — the three items the CPIR systematically checks. The Complete Kit Certif provides the programme templates, agreement templates, and audit evidence expected by certifying bodies and funders alike; the ebook “Create Your Training Organisation in 30 Days” walks through the administrative setup step by step, and the complete pack combines both so nothing is left to chance when a PTP funding application lands on your desk.