Opco EP: how a training provider accesses funding for crafts and local proximity businesses

A training provider approaching a craftsperson, a hairdresser or a pharmacy soon discovers a name largely unknown to the general public but essential for these trades: Opco EP. Unlike more recognisable skills operators such as Opco Santé or Constructys, Opco EP brings together a highly diverse business base — from a solo craftsperson to a hairdressing chain — under one roof, with three distinct funding channels worth knowing before approaching a prospect. Here is how they work, and what changed on 1 September 2026.

Opco EP, the skills operator for crafts and proximity businesses

Opco EP was created by the approval order of 29 March 2019, effective 1 April 2019, which merged the responsibilities of several former collecting bodies (AGEFOS-PME, Opcalia, Opcalim, Actalians and Fafsea) across the crafts and proximity business sector. Its scope today covers 54 professional branches — hairdressing, bakeries and pastry shops, taxi and VTC drivers, laundries, pharmacies, opticians, liberal professions and many other proximity trades — for around 400,000 companies and 3.5 million employees.

This diversity of branches also means a diversity of collective bargaining agreements: each branch attached to Opco EP is identified by its own IDCC code, which determines the funding rules that apply to a given file. Before building an offer or a quote, our method for identifying a company’s OPCO and IDCC remains the starting point, particularly here where a craftsperson and a pharmacy can both fall under Opco EP without sharing the same collective agreement.

The one requirement common to every funding route: Qualiopi certification

Whichever channel is used afterwards, one core requirement applies: Qualiopi certification, mandatory since 1 January 2022 for any training, apprenticeship, VAE or skills assessment service funded with public or pooled funds. A non-certified provider can neither be named in a standard funding request, nor apply to a call for projects, nor appear in the Sélexion catalogue described below.

This requirement is not specific to Opco EP — it applies to every OPCO, as our guide to OPCO funding explains — but it remains the essential prerequisite before any commercial approach to its member companies.

Three funding channels not to confuse

This is the point that most surprises providers discovering Opco EP: rather than a single-window process, three distinct logics coexist, each with its own rules and contacts.

1. Direct sale under the skills development plan

For an action funded under the skills development plan of a member company, the process is standard: your provider contracts directly with the client company, which submits its own funding request to Opco EP, and your role is limited to supplying a compliant programme sheet and the required proof of delivery — attendance sheets first among them. File tracking now runs through the new “Mes services en ligne — organisme de formation” portal (messervicesenligne-of.opcoep.fr), which centralises request status, funding agreements and payment notices.

2. Regional calls for projects and collective actions

For collective actions — training courses that Opco EP’s regional bodies decide to fund to meet a need identified in a territory or branch — the logic changes: your provider is no longer selling directly to an end client, it applies to a call for projects published on regions.opcoep.fr, competing with other providers. Responses are submitted on the dedicated online platform, opco-ep.e-marchespublics.com: creating an account in advance, before a call matching your offering is published, saves valuable time when submitting.

3. The Sélexion catalogue: becoming a pre-selected course

Opco EP launched Sélexion, a catalogue of courses rigorously selected by its teams, designed to simplify access to training for its smallest member companies. An eligible company chooses a course in a few clicks, without building a standard funding request. For a training provider, being listed in Sélexion means direct, recurring access to a flow of trainees from very small businesses, without file-by-file sales effort.

What changed with the VAT reform on 1 September 2026

Since 1 September 2026, as part of the VAT reform applicable to OPCOs, the funding terms of the Sélexion catalogue have changed: companies with 50 or more employees can no longer access it. The scheme remains reserved for companies with fewer than 50 employees, whose training costs continue to be covered at 100% by Opco EP. For a provider listed on Sélexion, this mechanically narrows the eligible audience to the smallest structures — precisely Opco EP’s historical core target — and is worth anticipating if part of your Sélexion flow previously came from companies close to the 50-employee threshold.

A legal contribution calibrated for very small businesses

The legal contribution to vocational training, collected by Urssaf, varies according to the size of the member company: 0.55% of payroll for companies with fewer than 11 employees, and 1% from 11 employees upward. This differentiation reflects the reality of Opco EP’s business base, dominated by very small craft structures, and explains why schemes like Sélexion — designed for simplified, low-friction access — occupy such a central place in its range of services.

Why targeting craft micro-businesses makes sense for a training provider

Very small businesses remain structurally less trained than larger ones. A landmark study by Dominique Goux and Philippe Zamora, published in the Insee journal Économie et Statistique, shows that by the late 1990s, employees at companies with more than 500 staff accessed employer-funded continuing training roughly three times more often than those at companies with fewer than 10 employees. This is precisely the structural gap that pooling funds through an OPCO dedicated to proximity businesses, and simplified schemes like Sélexion, aim to close.

On a broader economic level, a study by Christine Greenhalgh published in the journal Fiscal Studies, comparing mandatory training contribution systems in France and the United Kingdom, finds that this type of pooled levy significantly increases employees’ access to continuing training, including in small businesses that, left to their own devices, would invest less spontaneously in upskilling their teams. A training provider that builds a clear offering for craft trades is therefore addressing exactly the audience that pooled funding actively seeks to upskill.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating Opco EP as a single-window operator, when direct sales, calls for projects and the Sélexion catalogue follow different rules and different contacts.
• Overlooking the client company’s IDCC, when the diversity of Opco EP’s 54 branches can change the funding rules from one file to the next.
• Discovering a regional call for projects on the day it is published, without an active account on the online platform, risking a missed submission deadline.
• Ignoring the new 50-employee threshold on Sélexion since 1 September 2026, by directing a client company that is no longer eligible toward this catalogue.

Take action

Whether your provider targets crafts, hairdressing or liberal professions, the entry point remains the same for every Opco EP funding channel: solid Qualiopi certification and documentary evidence ready to be presented, whether for a client file, a call for projects, or a Sélexion application. The Complete Kit Certif (€297, 14-day guarantee) provides programme-sheet and evidence templates compliant with indicator 1 to secure your catalogue. If you are starting your training provider, the ebook Setting up a training provider in 30 days (€67) covers the administrative basics, and the Complete Pack (€347) brings both resources together.