France's public list of training organisations: checking an NDA on data.gouv.fr

How do you know whether a training provider is genuinely declared? Whether it really holds the Qualiopi certification displayed on its website? The fastest answer sits in a file open to everyone: the Liste publique des organismes de formation — France’s public list of training organisations — published as open data on data.gouv.fr by the Ministry of Labour through the DGEFP (the national directorate for employment and vocational training). This free, freely reusable dataset has become the go-to tool for checking an activity declaration number (NDA), vetting a subcontractor before signing, or monitoring your own administrative visibility. Provided you know exactly what it contains — and what it doesn’t say.

What is the public list of training organisations?

The French Labour Code provides that the list of organisations that have filed an activity declaration is to be made public. In practice, that obligation takes the form of a dataset published on data.gouv.fr, the French government’s open data platform, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour (DGEFP). The data comes from Mon Activité Formation, the portal where organisations file their activity declaration using Cerfa form 10782 and, every year, their financial and educational report (BPF).

Two features define this list:

• It covers declared organisations, not just certified ones. A training organisation holding an active NDA appears in it, whether Qualiopi certified or not. It is a snapshot of France’s declared vocational training market.
• It is open data. Anyone can download it, filter it, cross-reference it with other files (the SIRENE company register, certifier directories) or build tools on top of it. Several public and private search engines already rely on this file to offer simplified lookups.

What information does it contain?

Without going into the exact detail of every column — the file’s schema can evolve from one published version to the next — the list brings together several families of information about each organisation:

Data family	Indicative content	What it’s for
Identification	NDA, SIREN/SIRET, company name, address	Verifying legal existence and identity
Certifications	Certifications held (including Qualiopi) and the categories of actions covered	A first check on claimed compliance
Declared activity	Data drawn from the financial and educational report, such as numbers of learners trained	Gauging real activity levels
Specialisms	Declared training fields	Understanding the organisation’s positioning

The “certifications” section deserves a careful read: Qualiopi is not a single all-purpose certification — it is issued per category of actions (training actions, skills assessments, VAE, apprenticeships). An organisation can be certified for training actions but not for apprenticeships. The public list reflects this breakdown, which makes it a sharper tool than a simple “certified / not certified” label. To take the verification all the way, our guide on checking that an organisation really is Qualiopi certified covers the cross-checks to run with the certifier.

The BPF-based section is just as valuable: the numbers of learners trained and the activity data declared each year give a sense of the organisation’s real volume. A provider claiming ten years of experience but declaring next to no activity deserves a few questions. To understand where these figures come from, see our article on the financial and educational report (BPF).

How to search for an organisation in the list

The method depends on your use case:

1. One-off lookup: use a search tool that reuses the file (several public and private services offer one) and search by company name, SIREN or NDA. It’s the simplest way to check an activity declaration number in seconds.
2. In-depth verification: download the file from data.gouv.fr and filter it in a spreadsheet. Cross-referencing SIREN + NDA + certification gives you a complete, time-stamped view — useful for building an evidence file.
3. Recurring or automated use: the open format allows automated checks, for instance periodically verifying that all your subcontractors still appear in the list with an active certification.

In every case, search by SIREN or SIRET rather than by name: approximate company names, trading names and near-identical names are the leading source of errors.

Why an organisation appears in the list — or vanishes from it

Appearing in the public list is neither an acquired right nor a coincidence. Three practical conditions determine an organisation’s presence:

• A registered, active activity declaration. No NDA, no entry: the list is built from declarations validated by the DREETS.
• Filing the financial and educational report. The activity data displayed comes from the annual BPF; an organisation that fails to file it risks, beyond penalties, an empty or outdated entry.
• No lapse (caducité). This is the least understood point: an NDA that has lapsed — typically for lack of a filed BPF or of training activity — removes the organisation from the list. If a provider you knew is no longer listed, treat it as a serious warning sign. Our article on the lapse of the activity declaration explains the mechanism and how to avoid it.

For a training organisation director, the consequence is direct: check your own entry at least once a year, ideally after filing the BPF. A missing entry or an incorrect certification mention is fixed all the faster when caught early.

What is the public list actually used for?

Vetting a subcontractor before signing

A prime contractor remains responsible for the quality of the training it outsources. Before entrusting a course to a subcontractor, a pass through the public list lets you check their NDA, Qualiopi status and declared activity level. This documented check fits naturally into the evidence file expected by funders and auditors — our guide to subcontracting obligations in vocational training details what the audit expects on this point.

Checking your own listing

Funders, OPCOs, corporate clients and platforms consult this file. A missing or inaccurate entry can block a funding application without you ever being told. Check the consistency between your Qualiopi certificate, your entry in the public list and your EDOF listing for CPF funding: all three must tell the same story.

Securing due diligence before an acquisition

When taking over a training organisation, the public list offers a free, external checkpoint: is the NDA active? Do the certifications claimed by the seller match the categories of actions listed? Are the declared learner numbers consistent with the revenue presented? This cross-check is no substitute for a full acquisition audit, but it quickly weeds out deals that don’t hold up.

What open data enables — and what it doesn’t guarantee

Publishing this list is part of the broader open government data movement, whose benefits are well documented in the research. A 2012 study by Janssen, Charalabidis and Zuiderwijk published in Information Systems Management (see it on Google Scholar) analyses the real benefits of public open data — transparency, trust, scrutiny by users — but also dismantles a persistent myth: publishing data creates no value in itself. Its value comes from effective use by people who consult it, cross-reference it and base decisions on it. In other words: the public list only protects those who take the trouble to consult it.

Its limits should also be kept in mind:

• Data freshness. The file is updated periodically, not in real time. A certification suspended yesterday may still appear today, and a recently declared organisation may take time to show up.
• It replaces no official document. Not the Qualiopi certificate issued by the certifier, not a sworn statement, not a company registry extract. For any contractual commitment, require the original documents currently in force.
• It says nothing about teaching quality. Appearing in the list attests to an administrative status, not to the value of a course.

Public list, EDOF, directory of certified organisations: three tools not to confuse

• The public list covers declared organisations (active NDA), certified or not, along with their activity data.
• The directory of Qualiopi-certified organisations, published by the administration from certifiers’ data, only lists certificate holders.
• EDOF is the catalogue of CPF-eligible courses on Mon Compte Formation: being listed requires Qualiopi, a registered qualification (RNCP or Répertoire Spécifique) and an accepted listing application.

An organisation can therefore appear in the public list without being on EDOF — while the reverse is impossible under normal rules. For a complete check on a provider, cross-reference all three sources.

Take action

Appearing cleanly in the public list starts with impeccable administrative and quality records: an active NDA, a filed BPF, a solid Qualiopi certification. The Complete Kit Certif gives you the procedures and evidence for all 32 indicators to obtain and keep the certification. If you don’t have your NDA yet, the ebook Create Your Training Organisation in 30 Days walks you from the activity declaration to your first client, and the complete pack covers both creation and certification end to end.