Cascade subcontracting: can a subcontracted training course be subcontracted again?

Your subcontractor has a scheduling conflict and “sends someone else”. An organisation offers you a trainer who, in reality, works through a third party. Welcome to cascade subcontracting — second-tier subcontracting — one of the riskiest arrangements in French vocational training. Since April 2024, it is even expressly prohibited on the CPF (personal training account). Here are the rules, and how to lock down your chain of trainers.

What we are talking about: tier 1, tier 2, cascade

In classic training subcontracting, a prime contractor entrusts the delivery of all or part of a course to a provider: that is tier 1. There is a cascade when that subcontractor in turn entrusts delivery to another provider (tier 2), sometimes without the original prime contractor knowing. The end client believes it is buying organisation A’s expertise; the course is delivered by C, whom A has never met.

On the CPF: an express ban since 1 April 2024

Decree no. 2023-1350 of 28 December 2023, implementing the CPF anti-fraud law, strictly regulated the subcontracting of CPF-funded courses. Article R. 6333-6-2 of the Labour Code is unambiguous: “the subcontractor may not itself subcontract the performance of the course entrusted to it”. The chain stops at tier 1, full stop.

The same rules require the EDOF-listed prime contractor to have:

• a written contract with each subcontractor (tasks, content, resources, duration, price…);
• communication of subcontracting agreements to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (the public body operating the CPF);
• compliance with the 80% cap on CPF turnover performed through subcontracting (order of 3 January 2024);
• no subcontracting to a provider under temporary delisting from EDOF;
• and, as a rule, a Qualiopi-certified subcontractor — the waiver being reserved for certain micro-entrepreneurs below a turnover threshold, as detailed in our article on CPF subcontracting.

A cascade on the CPF therefore exposes the prime contractor to consequences from the Caisse des dépôts (up to delisting from EDOF) and weakens the entire contractual chain.

Outside the CPF: no general ban, but a quality trap

For courses funded by companies, OPCOs (sector skills bodies) or on own funds, no general provision prohibits second-tier subcontracting. Is it a good idea anyway? Almost never, for a simple reason: indicator 27 requires you to demonstrate the selection, contractualisation and evaluation of your external trainers. If you do not know who actually delivers your sessions, that demonstration collapses — and your compliance with it.

The reform of the framework published in August 2026 raises the bar further: the new 33-indicator framework, applicable from 1 November 2026, requires the provider to ensure its subcontractors’ compliance with the framework “and to ensure its traceability in subcontracting agreements”. An untraced cascade becomes very hard to defend at audit.

Research confirms the intuition. A study by James, Johnstone, Quinlan and Walters published in 2007 in the Industrial Law Journal (see the study) shows that subcontracting chains dilute responsibility and erode control over regulatory obligations the further down the chain you go — hence the value of placing obligations on the head of the chain, exactly the logic of indicator 27. In construction, Manu, Ankrah, Proverbs and Suresh (2013, International Journal of Project Management — see the study) observe that main contractors only mitigate these risks through active selection and monitoring of subcontractors, never through the contract alone.

Do not confuse cascading with neighbouring arrangements

• Umbrella employment: a trainer working through an umbrella company (portage salarial) is not a cascade — the umbrella company is the trainer’s employer, not a tier-2 subcontractor.
• Joint contracting: two organisations answering a call for tenders together are co-contractors, each contracting with the client — see our article on co-traitance (joint contracting).
• Replacing a salaried trainer: if your subcontractor sends in another of its own employees, that is not tier-2 subcontracting — but your contract can require prior approval of the trainers’ identity.

Locking the chain: the clauses and controls that work

On the contract side, four locks to set from the drafting stage (templates are available in our document models):

1. Personal-performance clause: the assignment is entrusted in consideration of the subcontractor and of the trainers named in an annex.
2. Ban on subcontracting without the prime contractor’s prior written consent — and, if consent is given, extension of all quality obligations to tier 2.
3. Sanctions: penalties, immediate termination rights, indemnity against financial consequences (funder, certification body).
4. Transparency: an obligation to report any unavailability and to propose a replacement subject to validation.

On the control side, the best clause never replaces the field: check the consistency between the announced trainers and the attendance sheets, read the end-of-course evaluations (an unknown trainer’s name shows up quickly there) and keep a direct line to the trainers working under your brand.

You discover an ongoing cascade: what to do?

The scenario happens more often than you would think: an end-of-course evaluation mentions an unknown trainer, or a trainee writes to you directly. Deal with it immediately, in this order:

1. Suspend the sessions concerned while you clarify who is actually delivering, especially if the course is CPF-funded — the tier-2 ban is absolute there.
2. Document: ask the subcontractor in writing for the identity and qualifications of the tier-2 trainer, the dates concerned and the documents produced.
3. Regularise or terminate: either you contract directly with the actual trainer (who becomes a tier-1 subcontractor, selected and evaluated like the others), or you apply the contract’s sanctions.
4. Record the episode in your continuous improvement process: a malfunction handled and documented is defensible at audit; a concealed one never is.

Take action

Subcontracting cannot be steered from a distance: documented selection, a locked contract, traced evaluation. The Qualiopi certification guide details these expectations, and our article on subcontracting abroad completes the picture when your chain crosses borders. The Complete Kit Certif provides the subcontracting agreement and the trainer evaluation grid, ready to adapt.