Qualiopi labelling bodies: the recognised list for 2026-2028

Qualiopi is not delivered only by Cofrac-accredited certification bodies. The French Labour Code organises a second, lesser-known route: labelling by a body recognised by France compétences, which counts as satisfying the quality requirement for the structures covered. Eight bodies hold this recognition for the 2026-2028 period. Here is the list, what the status allows exactly, and why it concerns only a well-defined minority of providers.

The framework: article L. 6316-2 of the Labour Code

The quality obligation for vocational training (article L. 6316-1) can be met in two ways:

1. through Qualiopi certification delivered by a certification body accredited by Cofrac or a signatory of an equivalent European agreement — the standard route, taken by nearly all training providers (choosing your certifier is covered in our article choosing a certification body);
2. through a label delivered by a body recognised by France compétences, on the basis of the same national quality framework (article L. 6316-2).

France compétences does not recognise just any label: it verifies that the labelling process involves an administrative authority and offers guarantees of independence from the labelled providers. The list of recognised bodies is public and reviewed every three years.

The eight bodies recognised for 2026-2028

Eight bodies were recognised for the 2023-2025 period, then renewed by the board of France compétences for the period from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028:

Labelling body	Label	Field covered
Ministry of Education and Youth	EDUFORM	Continuing education within the Ministry of Education’s network (GRETA, GIP-FCIP)
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty	QualiFormAgri	Agricultural-education network
Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories	Quality of training in driving schools	Driving schools
France Éducation international	Qualité Français langue étrangère (FLE)	French-as-a-foreign-language centres
Association for the promotion of the APP label	Atelier de Pédagogie Personnalisée (APP)	Personalised-pedagogy workshops
National federation of CIBCs	OBCAQT	Skills-assessment providers of the CIBC network
Network of Écoles de la 2e Chance in France	École de la 2e Chance (E2C)	Second-chance schools
Occitanie Region	Certif’Région	Organisations within the Region’s remit

Two things stand out. First, the strong presence of public authorities: three ministries and one Region directly operate a labelling body. Second, the network logic: each label covers a delimited field, with an identified supervisory authority or network head. This is exactly what the legislator intended — the labelling route is not a parallel certification market, but a channel suited to networks structured around an administrative authority.

EDUFORM, a textbook case of the labelling route

The Ministry of Education’s label illustrates the scheme well. Created by a decree of 24 February 2017, EDUFORM attests that the network’s continuing-education services comply with a good-practice framework (AFNOR BP X50-762) which incorporates the requirements of the national quality framework. The label is awarded for three years by the minister, on the recommendation of a national labelling commission, after an audit — then maintained through monitoring audits.

The result: an EDUFORM-labelled GRETA satisfies the quality requirement without separate certification by a Cofrac certifier. The mechanism, its limits and the useful checks are detailed in our article Is the EDUFORM label equivalent to Qualiopi?, and the full scheme on our EDUFORM label page.

Why keep two routes? What research says

One could argue that a single system — everyone with an accredited certifier — would be clearer. But research on quality certifications shows that organisations seek certification for heterogeneous reasons, between regulatory compliance and competitive advantage: that is the finding of the study by Shannon Anderson, J. Daniel Daly and Marilyn Johnson published in 1999 in Production and Operations Management (see the study). For public networks already equipped with a supervisory authority, a framework and an internal quality process, imposing a second, identical external control would have duplicated costs without strengthening the guarantee — as long as the independence of the labelling process is verified, which France compétences does before each recognition.

The counterpart of this flexibility is the three-year review: a body that no longer offered the required guarantees could fail to be renewed. The equivalence is therefore never acquired once and for all — hence the importance of checking the list in force before relying on a label.

The right reflexes for your situation

• You are a “standard” training provider: the labelling route is not open to you unless you belong to one of the covered networks. Your path is certification by an accredited body — start with our indicators guide.
• You belong to a covered network (Ministry of Education, agricultural education, APP, CIBC, E2C, driving schools, FLE, the Occitanie Region’s remit): ask your network head about the applicable labelling process.
• You are a funder, buyer or partner: when a provider relies on a label, check that the body appears on the France compétences list in force and that the structure is covered, for the activity concerned, at the relevant date.

Take action

To understand the labelling route in depth through its most structured example, see our EDUFORM label page: scope, steps, frequently asked questions and a free ebook. And if your structure follows the standard route, our indicators guide details everything an auditor expects.