Finance your Language Course with your government training budget (Chamonix)

Are you a French business owner, an auto-entrepreneur, employed on a French contract or a registered job seeker in France?  If so, then Alpine French School and its sister company Gallico that specialises in ‘Formation Professionnelle’ can help you access government funding to cover the cost of your French course.

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In France, the continued training of the country’s workforce is something that the government has always invested heavily in.  The idea is that everyone of working age in France should be able to access training to improve their skills. Formation Professionnelle means Professional Training.  Alpine French School & Gallico are specialists in language training but Formation Professionnelle applies to any course that will improve your business skills.

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The Formation Professionnelle system in France can be quite confusing, but we are here to help you navigate this. With over 25 years experience in this field, we are well placed to help you access the training budgets you are entitled to and we accompany you throughout the process.  Depending on how you are registered in France, you have access to different types of funding and each of these work in different ways with different criteria to respect.

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Business owners and auto-entrepreneurs fall in the same category when it comes to funding, although the size of your business can affect your budget entitlement.  Businesses in France fall into one of 3 categories: ‘commercial’, ‘libéral’ or ‘artisanal’.  Each of these categories has a financing body who offers a training budget for people falling under their remit.  Business owners and auto-entrepreneurs also accumulate CPF like employees in France.

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If you are employed on a French contract, there are 2 types of training budget that you can access.  If the training course is your employer’s idea and will directly benefit you in your current company, each company has a ‘Plan de Développement des Compétences’ and they can finance training courses through their OPCO.  In addition to this, employees also have CPF that they can use for a course related to their current role, or to develop future skills.

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If you are a job seeker registered on the French system, you will also have accumulated CPF during your periods of work.  You can use this as and when you like, for courses that will benefit you in the future or simply courses that are of interest to you. In addition to this, with your France Travail advisor, you may be able to access additional funding for courses that are in your return to work plan with them.

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The CPF is the ‘Compte Professionnel de Formation’ and this is like your individual training bank account.  Money is credited to your account for each year that you work in the French system.  This money accumulates and you can use it to pay for training courses.  The CPF website is like an online shopping website for professional training courses so you can go on there and search for courses in your local area or online.  All CPF courses are certified courses so you need to take an examination or a test at the end of the course to use your CPF.  Most of these tests can now be taken online for ease.