Funding employee training in Morocco: CSF, GIAC and OFPPT, who pays for what

Every autumn, HR directors finalise the following year’s training plan, and the same question comes up: what will be reimbursed, by whom, and by what date? Funding for continuing training in Morocco does exist, but it rests on old texts, two bodies and a calendar that leaves little room for error. The rules described here are Moroccan and the official texts and forms are in French, so we keep the French terms and explain them. Check the current conditions with the bodies concerned before you rely on them.

Continuing training in Morocco: what the law says in 2026

Loi n° 60-17, the law that organises continuing training (formation continue) for private-sector employees, was promulgated on 5 October 2018 and published in French in the Bulletin officiel, Morocco’s official gazette, on 2 May 2019. It sets out a clear principle: “la formation continue est un droit pour les salariés garanti par la loi et auquel l’employeur doit se soumettre” (in French). In practice, this makes continuing training a right that employees hold by law and that the employer is bound to respect. Employees keep their salary while they are in training, and the law creates a time credit of at least three working days a year, which can be accumulated over five years and is used at the employee’s initiative.

Two nuances change everything in practice.

Several provisions are still waiting for their implementing texts. Article 32 of the law provides that any provision requiring a regulatory text only comes into force once that text is published. The time credit is one of them. In March 2026, the Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE, Morocco’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council, an advisory body) found that the legal framework “demeure inabouti en l’absence de textes d’application” (in French). In other words, the framework remains incomplete because the implementing texts have not been issued.

The old manuals still set the rules. The same article 32 keeps the procedures manual for the CSF and the one for the GIAC in force until they are replaced. Funding therefore still runs on the manuel des CSF of May 2006 (in French), the manuel des GIAC of March 2003 (in French) and the two amendments (avenants) that came into force in June 2014 (in French).

The money comes from the taxe de formation professionnelle (TFP), the vocational training tax you already pay. Its rate is set at 1.6% of gross pay, payable by the employer alone (in French), and it is collected by the CNSS (Caisse nationale de sécurité sociale, Morocco’s national social security fund). Few companies recover any of it: according to the CESE, only 1,647 companies benefited from the CSF in 2022, out of nearly 315,000 contributing companies, which is less than 0.5%.

Who funds what: GIAC, CSF and OFPPT

The system works in two stages: the GIAC funds the work of identifying needs and building the plan, then the CSF reimburse the training once it has been delivered. GIAC stands for groupement interprofessionnel d’aide au conseil: an association created by a sector’s professional federations, which funds diagnosis and training engineering studies for its member companies. Training engineering (ingénierie de formation) is the study that turns your needs into a structured training plan.

The GIAC rates and ceilings come from the manuel des GIAC. How often you can claim then depends on each GIAC: GIAC Tertiaire, for example, funds a strategic diagnosis every three years (in French) and training engineering every year (in French), provided the previous year’s plan has been carried out before a second request.

Each sector has its own GIAC: GIAC Tertiaire for services, GIAC Textile et Cuir for textiles and leather, GIAC1 for mechanical and electrical engineering, automotive or chemicals, among others. Identify yours first.

Finally, the OFPPT (Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail, Morocco’s public vocational training agency) plays two roles. It manages the CSF: it checks eligibility against CNSS data, issues the contracts and pays the reimbursements. It also runs its own in-house and multi-company training courses, which are one option among others.

Is your company eligible?

There are three conditions, to check in this order.

Be up to date with the TFP for the Année TFP. The CSF are open to employers who are liable for the TFP and up to date with the CNSS for this tax. The manuel des CSF defines the Année TFP, the reference year for the tax, as the period from 1 July of year N-2 to 30 June of year N-1. For a 2027 plan, it is therefore your declarations from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 that count.

Obtain the attestation d’accès aux CSF. This certificate of access to the CSF covers all your funding requests for the year, as well as the studies funded by the GIAC. The application for year N can be filed from October of year N-1: for 2027, that has been possible since this month. The file consists of four documents (in French): form F1 (formulaire F1) bearing a signature légalisée, meaning an officially certified signature; a modèle J extract from the registre de commerce (trade register) less than three months old; the document proving the signatory’s authority; and an attestation d’identité bancaire confirming the company’s bank details. Since 2014, the certificate has been issued on the spot for any complete file (in French). The application and the eligibility check go through the OFPPT portal (in French), but GIAC Tertiaire points out that the paper administrative file must still be lodged in person at the OFPPT.

Join the GIAC for your sector. You must operate in a sector covered by its member federations and pay a membership fee. At GIAC Textile et Cuir, for example, expect 2,000 DH in joining fees and 1,000 DH a year. In the same GIAC, the company also signs a sworn statement (déclaration sur l’honneur): no membership of another GIAC, no other study funded through another scheme in the same year, and no structural link with the consultancy carrying out the study.

Large organisations (TFP above 3 million dirhams, banks and insurers with more than 100 employees, public bodies named in the manual) follow a separate track. Their reimbursement ceiling cannot exceed 50% of the TFP declared.

Planned or unplanned: the rule that changes the rate

The manuel des CSF describes as “planifiées” (planned) the training actions included in an annual training plan that necessarily stems from a training engineering study. A plan based on engineering that the GIAC has not validated is treated as unplanned training. The difference is stark: 70% against 40% of the eligible cost (coût retenu).

On an eligible cost of 100,000 DH, you recover 70,000 DH with a validated plan and 40,000 DH without one. Three points to note:

• The eligible cost is not necessarily the amount on your invoice. It is the cost set by each regional committee’s schedule of rates (nomenclature). Amounts are excluding tax: the VAT stays with you.
• In-house training counts too. When it is delivered by your own staff, it is reimbursed at 70% or 40% of an eligible cost calculated at 800 DH per day.
• Long programmes are excluded. Courses of 50 days or more have no longer been eligible since 1 June 2014.

The total reimbursed over the year is then capped according to the TFP declared. Here is the scale from the 2006 manual, which the 2014 amendment left unchanged.

Let’s run the numbers. An SME whose gross payroll reaches 1 million dirhams over the Année TFP pays 16,000 DH in TFP. Its ceiling is 160,000 DH, or 240,000 DH if it has had a strategic diagnosis approved: ten to fifteen times what it paid. A company with a payroll of 5 million pays 80,000 DH and can recover up to 200,000 DH, or 300,000 DH with a diagnosis. Functional literacy training (alphabétisation fonctionnelle), reimbursed at 80% up to 3,000 DH per person, is funded outside this ceiling.

So the strategic diagnosis and the engineering are not a formality: they raise the rate from 40% to 70% and lift the ceiling. They are also the moment to tie the plan to the company’s priorities rather than compile individual requests, just as you would to align a team around clear priorities.

The timeline for a 2027 training plan

The dates below apply the manuel des CSF and its 2014 amendment to a plan starting in 2027, together with the notice rule that GIAC Tertiaire applies to studies.

On the cash side, you pay the provider before you are reimbursed, since the financial claim requires proof of payment. The 2014 amendment limits the time between the acknowledgement of a complete file and the transfer order to 30 calendar days. Even so, the CESE notes that reimbursement delays, which are often long, put a strain on the cash flow of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (TPME). Budget for training as an advance.

The classic trap is starting the engineering too late. If the plan is not validated in time to file the requests before 30 June, that year’s training drops to 40%.

Building a file that goes through first time

An incomplete financial claim is handed back to you at the counter, so gather the documents as you go. For training delivered by an external provider, the manuel des CSF requires:

• the original invoice, signed and stamped by the provider and stamped by the company
• the attendance sheet (liste de présence) signed by the participants, with the stamps of the provider and the company
• the summary evaluation form (fiche d’évaluation synthétique) for each course, prepared and validated by the provider since 2014
• the certificate of completion (attestation de réalisation) for the courses submitted for reimbursement
• proof of payment (cheque or transfer order, plus a bank statement showing the debit), as a copy marked “conforme à l’original”, which certifies it as a true copy of the original

Check the provider before you sign. A private provider must be liable for the TFP and up to date with its CNSS declarations, according to its date of registration. Public bodies (universities, engineering schools, vocational training institutions) are also accepted. The eligibility file, available from the OFPPT portal, also covers providers.

Ask for direct payment whenever possible. Since 2014, the OFPPT can pay the provider directly, an arrangement known as tiers payant, if the provider is a public body or holds a valid label de qualification, the quality label awarded by the Département de la formation professionnelle, the government department responsible for vocational training. You then only advance your own share.

Plan ahead outside Casablanca. The CESE notes that the qualified supply is limited to 82 accredited providers and 327 experts, most of them based in Casablanca. For teams in Rabat, in Tangier or across several sites, book early.

Checklist for preparing your 2027 plan

• Identify the GIAC for your sector and check that your membership is up to date.
• Check on the OFPPT portal that the company is eligible for 2027.
• File the application for the attestation d’accès aux CSF now, with its four documents.
• Decide whether a strategic diagnosis is worth doing this year.
• Start the training engineering early enough to file all planned training before 30 June 2027.
• Calculate your ceiling from the TFP declared and compare it with the training budget you have in mind.
• Check each training provider’s eligibility and ask whether it holds the label de qualification that makes direct payment possible.
• Prepare a standard file for each course: invoice, attendance sheet, evaluation, certificate of completion, proof of payment.
• Put the end of February 2028 and 31 December 2028 deadlines in the diary now.

What the reform under discussion could change

The CESE opinion adopted on 25 March 2026 highlights complex procedures for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, slow reimbursements and a concentrated supply of providers. Among its recommendations:

• revise loi 60-17 to hand continuing training to a tripartite body independent of the OFPPT
• guarantee that 30% of the TFP is actually allocated to continuing training, through a dedicated fund
• create a national digital platform to simplify procedures and speed up reimbursements
• fully cover training costs for very small enterprises (TPE)

These are proposals from an advisory body, not rules that apply. Build your 2027 plan on the texts currently in force, and check where the reform stands before each funding campaign.

From training plan to secured funding

Funding follows method. A plan built from the company’s priorities and the skills gaps you have observed stands up in front of the GIAC, gets filed on time and produces training that is genuinely useful. To identify those gaps and target your programmes more precisely, our human capital and skills development support starts from your performance and retention challenges. For managers and project managers, our catalogue of six training courses in project management and team management favours role plays, in formats from half a day to three days. Whichever provider you choose, TakeUp Consulting included, check its eligibility for the CSF before you sign: reimbursement depends on it. To build your 2027 plan, let’s talk about your priorities.