Trainers under portage salarial: do you need your own Qualiopi certification?

You are an independent trainer in France, a training organisation offers you assignments under portage salarial, and one question is holding you back: do you need to obtain your own Qualiopi certification? The short answer is no in most cases — but it depends entirely on who invoices what, to whom, and with which funding. This guide compares the three scenarios open to you — portage salarial, subcontracting as a micro-entrepreneur, or creating your own training organisation — so you can choose with full knowledge of the trade-offs.

Portage salarial applied to training: who does what

Portage salarial is a very French arrangement, best translated as “umbrella employment”. It rests on a three-way relationship: you, the trainer, become an employee of a portage (umbrella) company. That company signs the commercial contract with your client (often a training organisation), invoices the service, then pays you a salary after deducting its management fees — commonly in the range of 5 to 10% of revenue on the market — and social contributions.

In practice, for a training assignment:

• you negotiate the assignment and the rate with the client, like a freelancer;
• the portage company contracts and collects payment on your behalf;
• you receive a payslip, with the social protection of employee status (pension, unemployment insurance under conditions, provident cover).

This explains why so many trainers search for the cost of “portage + Qualiopi”: the real cost of portage is not the certification — which you generally do not have to obtain — but the management fees and contributions that sit between what you invoice and your net pay.

What the framework says: indicator 27 explicitly covers portage

The French National Quality Framework (Référentiel National Qualité) has anticipated your situation. Indicator 27 requires the certified organisation, “where the provider uses subcontracting or portage salarial”, to demonstrate that it ensures the compliance of the service. Plainly put: when a Qualiopi-certified training organisation entrusts you with delivery as a ported trainer, it is the principal who carries the burden of proof — verifying your competencies, contracting properly, passing on quality requirements, and evaluating your delivery.

The practical consequence is decisive:

• you generally do not need your own training activity declaration number (NDA) or Qualiopi certification to work through portage for certified principals;
• compliance is carried by the principal and, where relevant, by the portage company;
• in return, expect the training organisation to ask for your CV, diplomas, references and proof that you keep your skills current: these are its audit evidence, not administrative whim. Our article on the obligations of subcontracting trainers details what a principal is entitled to require.

The special case of Qualiopi-certified portage companies

Some portage companies specialising in training go further: they hold their own NDA and Qualiopi certification. The ported trainer can then access pooled funding (notably OPCO schemes, the sector training funds) through the structure, without creating their own organisation.

Attractive on paper, this set-up deserves four checks before you sign:

1. The actual scope of the certificate. Qualiopi is issued per category of action (training actions, skills assessments, VAE, apprenticeships): check that the category actually covers your services.
2. Who manages the compliance paperwork: programme, training agreement, attendance sheets, evaluations, contribution to the annual pedagogical and financial report (BPF). Some companies provide full tooling; others leave you to produce the evidence unaided.
3. The CPF circuit where relevant: who lists the course, who collects the funds, and how quickly you get paid.
4. What happens if you leave: the quality evidence and session history stay with the portage company, not with you.

Micro-entreprise subcontracting: the alternative to portage

Many trainers prefer the micro-entreprise regime (France’s simplified sole-trader status) to portage: no management fees and full autonomy, but obligations of your own (invoicing, contributions, and an NDA if you contract training actions directly). For subcontracting, the principle is the same as under portage: when you deliver for a certified training organisation, Qualiopi compliance rests with the principal.

One major exception since April 2024: for actions funded through the CPF (France’s personal training account), decree no. 2023-1350 requires the subcontractor to hold Qualiopi themselves once revenue exceeds the micro-social threshold of €77,700 excl. tax. A micro-entrepreneur trainer above that threshold working on CPF-funded courses must therefore obtain their own certification — we detail this rule in our article on CPF subcontracting and the Qualiopi requirement, and the micro-entreprise/training organisation combination in our guide on auto-entrepreneurs and training organisations.

Comparison table: portage, micro-entreprise, your own organisation

Criterion	Portage salarial	Micro-entreprise subcontractor	Your own training organisation
Qualiopi to obtain yourself	No (carried by the principal, or the portage company)	No for standard subcontracting; yes for CPF above €77,700 excl. tax	Yes, essential for funded training
Access to funding (OPCO, CPF)	Indirect, through the client organisation or a certified portage company	Indirect through the principal	Direct
Administrative burden	Minimal (employee status)	Moderate (invoicing, contributions, NDA where relevant)	Full (NDA, BPF, quality evidence, audits)
Structural cost	Management fees of roughly 5–10% of revenue + contributions	Micro-social contributions	Set-up, certification and audit costs
Social protection	Employee	Self-employed	Depends on the legal form chosen
Commercial autonomy	Dependence on the portage company	Strong	Total

This table illustrates a trade-off well documented by research: a study by Spreitzer, Cameron and Garrett published in 2017 in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior shows that the rise of alternative work arrangements — freelancers, workers intermediated by platforms or third-party structures — plays out precisely on this compromise between greater autonomy and security (income, social protection, organisational attachment) (see the study on Google Scholar). Portage salarial is the typically French answer to that trade-off: the autonomy of the freelancer with the security of employment, in exchange for management fees.

When should you create your own training organisation?

The switch becomes necessary as soon as you want to sell funded training directly — OPCO, CPF — without an intermediary. You then need a structure with its own training activity declaration and Qualiopi certification: the scenario of creating your own training organisation.

The signs it is time to take the step:

• your end clients ask for OPCO or CPF funding files that your principals capture instead of you;
• portage management fees weigh heavily on revenue that has become regular;
• you want to build a brand, a catalogue and a quality track record that belong to you.

The counterpart is a full compliance workload: NDA, annual BPF report, evidence for all 32 indicators, and initial, surveillance and renewal audits. Before launching, settle the legal form of your training organisation, then follow the steps in our guide on how to create a training organisation in France.

Take action

If you choose to create your own organisation to access funding directly, do not start from a blank page. The Complete Kit Certif at €297 provides the evidence templates, procedures and documents expected for all 32 indicators — including indicator 27 if you in turn engage ported or subcontracting trainers. The ebook Create your training organisation in 30 days at €67 walks through the activity declaration and administrative structuring step by step, and the Kit + Ebook Pack at €347 combines both so you can move from ported trainer to certified organisation without leaving anything to chance.