The Skills Development Plan (Plan de Développement des Compétences, or PDC) is the central HR tool for organising and funding your employees’ training in France. This complete guide covers the legal framework, the key steps to build a plan, and how to fund your training through your OPCO (the skills operator that manages training funds for your industry).
What Is a Skills Development Plan?
The Skills Development Plan (PDC) is a strategic tool that lists all the training activities an employer plans to carry out for their employees. It translates the company’s strategic direction into concrete skills needs, for each employee, each job and each team.
A skills development plan can include classroom training, online training, skills assessments (bilans de compétences), validation of acquired experience (VAE), or more informal skills development activities such as mentoring and learning on the job.
The purpose of the plan is twofold: to let each employee adapt to changes in their job, and to anticipate the skills needs created by shifts in the market. A well-built skills development plan is a direct lever for competitiveness.
PDC vs. Training Plan: What Vocational Training Reform Changed
The Skills Development Plan replaces the “training plan” (plan de formation) introduced by the 2004 law. Since the 2018 reform of vocational training, the term “training plan” has disappeared from the French Labour Code. This change is not merely semantic.
The new framework removes the rigid distinction between mandatory and non-mandatory training categories. It builds in a logic of forward-looking workforce and skills management (known in France as GPEC), strengthens the link between the PDC and professional development interviews, and explicitly recognises that skills development can take forms other than traditional classroom training.
For employees, this change means better visibility on their career paths and on their prospects for gaining new skills. For employers, it is a more flexible framework, but with clearer responsibilities.
The Skills Development Plan Framework: Legal Basis and Employer Obligations
The framework for the skills development plan rests on the legal and regulatory provisions of the Labour Code. Understanding this legal framework is the first condition for building a PDC that protects the employer and safeguards the employee’s rights.
The Training Obligation: A Legal Duty for All Employers
Every employer has a legal obligation to train their employees. The Labour Code requires employers to ensure that each employee adapts to their job and to take care that they remain able to hold a job. This obligation applies whatever the size of the company.
The framework of the development plan is not limited to a list of training courses: it is the proof that the employer is meeting their legal obligation toward each employee.
Companies With 50 or More Employees: Additional Obligations
For companies with at least 50 employees, the legal framework is stronger. The Skills Development Plan must be submitted to the CSE (Comité Social et Économique, the employee representative body) for consultation. This consultation is mandatory at two meetings a year: one to review the actions of the past year, and one for the forecast plan for the coming year.
Companies with at least 50 employees must also inform employee representatives about the company’s strategic direction and its consequences for jobs and the skills required. The CSE can submit comments, which the employer must take into account.
Fewer Than 50 Employees: A Lighter Framework, but the Obligation Remains
For companies with fewer than 50 employees, consulting the CSE is not mandatory. But the obligation to train employees remains in full. A skills development plan framework is recommended to structure training activities and to access OPCO funding, even where there is no legal requirement to formalise it.
Drawing Up the Plan: How to Build a Skills Development Plan in 5 Key Steps
Drawing up the skills development plan follows a structured logic. Here are the key steps to build an effective PDC.
Step 1: Gather Skills Needs
Drawing up a development plan starts with a diagnostic of skills needs. Professional development interviews (mandatory every 2 years) are the main moment for collecting them. Managers play a key role: they identify the gaps between each employee’s current skills and the skills expected in their job.
Step 2: Align With the Company’s Strategic Direction
An effective skills development plan does not simply list training courses; it answers the company’s strategic direction. Which skills will let your employees contribute to the 12 to 18 month objectives? Which new skills are needed to cope with changes in the market?
Step 3: Select the Training Activities
The content of a skills development plan covers all the training activities chosen: type (classroom, online, blended), duration, training provider, estimated cost. Each training activity must have a clear objective, identified target skills and a direct link to the job of the employee concerned.
Step 4: Weigh Priorities and Schedule
The employer, with HR support, weighs priorities against the available budget. For each employee, the plan specifies the planned training, its duration, its format and its impact on the employment contract (training during or outside actual working time). Managers validate the trade-offs for their teams.
Step 5: Validate, Consult the CSE and Communicate
In companies with more than 50 employees, drawing up the plan cannot be completed without consulting the CSE. In every organisation, the employees concerned must be told about the training planned for them. The plan then becomes an HR dialogue tool, not just an administrative document.
Drawing Up a Skills Development Plan: Training Activities for Your Employees
Not all training activities fall under the same legal regime within the skills development plan.
Mandatory Training
Required by a regulation, a collective agreement or the employment contract, this training is initiated by the employer and takes place during actual working time. The employee’s pay is maintained. It is funded by the company and may be covered by the OPCO under the applicable legal provisions.
Non-Mandatory Training
Decided by the employer to develop employees’ skills beyond the legal obligation, this training can take place during or outside working time. If it takes place outside working time, the employee’s written agreement is required. These skills development activities remain at the employer’s initiative and appear in the plan.
Other Skills Development Activities
Skills assessments, validation of acquired experience, mentoring, learning on the job: all of these activities can appear in the skills development plan and contribute to employees’ skills growth.
Setting Up a Skills Development Plan: The CSE, HR and Employee Representatives
Setting up a skills development plan is a collective effort that involves several people in the company.
HR leads the drawing up of the plan: gathering needs, coordinating managers, selecting Qualiopi-certified training providers, and monitoring the budget and OPCO funding. Its role is to make sure the plan reflects both employees’ needs and the company’s strategic direction.
Managers are the first to identify their teams’ skills needs. Their involvement in drawing up the plan determines how relevant the chosen training activities are.
The CSE is consulted in companies with more than 50 employees. Employee representatives can relay the needs of employees who do not speak up directly during professional development interviews. This consultation is not a formality: the CSE’s comments can enrich the plan and head off later disputes.
Funding the Skills Development Plan: The OPCO and Available Support
Funding for the skills development plan rests mainly on the payments a company makes to its OPCO (Opérateur de Compétences, or skills operator). Each company pays a vocational training contribution, which its OPCO redistributes according to its industry’s priorities.
For companies with fewer than 50 employees, the funding conditions are generally more favourable: the OPCO can cover a significant share of the cost of training activities, depending on the available budget. For companies with at least 50 employees, part of the contributions is managed independently, and the OPCO is called on for specific projects.
Skills development can also be funded through complementary schemes: the employee’s CPF (personal training account, for jointly initiated training), regional support, or Bpifrance schemes for training investments linked to digital transformation.
The Ministry of Labour publishes funding priorities for each industry every year. Aligning with those priorities maximises the chances of obtaining coverage within the available OPCO budget.
Building an Effective Skills Development Plan With Marmignon Brothers
Marmignon Brothers is a Qualiopi-certified organisation offering training that is eligible for funding under your employees’ skills development plan. Professional English, artificial intelligence, digital skills: our programmes fit the training priorities identified by the HR teams and managers of SMEs and mid-sized companies.
The e-dutainment method roots every training activity in the operational realities of your company. The skills your employees gain apply directly to their jobs, not in a theoretical setting disconnected from your real challenges. A skills development plan should be a performance lever, and our training is co-designed with you to make sure it is.
Our training is delivered in person, online or in a blended format, depending on the skills your employees need to develop. It is covered within the OPCO budget available in your industry.
→ Discover our PDC-eligible training and request a tailored quote
