Is the GEN label still valid in 2026? What you can claim

“Labelled Grande École du Numérique”: the claim still appears on providers’ websites, brochures and tender responses. Yet the GIP that awarded the label was dissolved by an order of 8 January 2025, and its liquidation has been closed since the summer of 2025. What is the claim still worth in 2026, what may you say about it, and what should a funder check when encountering it? Three answers.

What “valid” means for an extinct label

Three different things hide behind the words “GEN label”.

Administrative validity. The label was awarded for three years, to a programme in a given place. At dissolution, the communicated rule was clear: programmes started before the order kept their label for the cohorts under way, but no new labelling and no renewal is possible. Mechanically, the last labels awarded are expiring — a label granted in 2024 for three years is the furthest possible horizon, and nothing will extend it.

Evidentiary value. That a programme was labelled remains a fact: at the date of labelling, it met a demanding framework — a Qualiopi-certified organisation, at least 350 hours, at least 10 learners with few or no qualifications per cohort, socio-professional support, outcome reporting. That fact, dated, may legitimately appear in a track record, the way one mentions a past qualification.

Guarantee value. It is nil in 2026. The label says nothing about the programme as delivered today: nobody monitors compliance with the criteria any more, and no body can confirm or deny the claim. That is the whole difference with Qualiopi certification, which remains audited, dated and verifiable.

Communicating without exposure

For providers, the dividing line is simple: dated accuracy is allowed; ambiguity is not.

Wording	Verdict
“Programme labelled Grande École du Numérique from 2022 to 2025”	Correct: exact fact, dated, past tense
“Formerly GEN-labelled, our programme upholds the same inclusion commitments”	Correct: acknowledged history + own commitment
“GEN-labelled programme” (present tense, undated) in a 2026 catalogue	Avoid: implies an active label
The label’s logo in a footer, with no period stated	Avoid: a misleading signal of currency

The stakes go beyond editorial elegance. An unverifiable label claim presented as current can qualify as a misleading commercial practice and weakens a file before an attentive funder or competitor. The logic is the same as for use of the Qualiopi trademark, which is strictly regulated — our article on the rules for using the logo and trademark shows how sensitive funders have become to these display questions.

The right strategy is to shift the burden of proof from the logo to the results. What the label certified — real digital skills leading to employment — is demonstrated today by your figures. And those skills can be described precisely: the systematic review by Ester van Laar and co-authors, published in 2017 in Computers in Human Behavior and based on 75 studies, identifies seven core digital skills for 21st-century work — technical, information, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving (see the study). A programme report documenting learners’ progress on those dimensions, together with dated job-outcome rates, is worth more than any logo ever was.

What a funder or buyer should check

If you are reviewing a file that mentions “GEN-labelled”, three checks:

1. The chronology. Ask for the period labelling notification: dates, programme covered, location. A GEN label can only cover the period before its three-year expiry, and nothing after.
2. Current guarantees. The decision must rest on what is verifiable in 2026: the organisation’s Qualiopi certification (checkable in official documents and with the certifier), the registration of the credential prepared, recent job-outcome reports. The label’s historical criteria — which we detail in the GEN label’s criteria — can serve as an analysis grid, not as a guarantee.
3. Consistency. A provider claiming the GEN legacy must be able to show continuity: the same audiences enrolled, support maintained, results measured. A legacy is proven, not declared.

Take action

The essentials of the scheme — history, criteria, dissolution, frequent questions — fit on our Grande École du Numérique label page, which also gives access to a free ebook on life after the label. And to ground your credibility in what is verifiable today, the Kit Certif Complet equips you on every indicator of the national quality framework.