“Can the engagement be funded?” is one of the most frequent questions we get, and the answer is yes more often than companies expect — because most already pay the levy that feeds these schemes without ever drawing on them.

Contents

  1. The levy you already pay
  2. The four schemes and what they cover
  3. What is fundable, what is not
  4. Timing: the mistake that costs the funding
  5. Building an application that succeeds

The levy you already pay

Every payslip you issue carries a vocational training levy. On a 2026 minimum-wage position it comes to roughly 55 MAD a month. Multiplied by your headcount and by twelve, it is a meaningful budget line — and it funds schemes you have access to.

Most Moroccan SMEs pay this contribution and recover nothing from it, either because they do not know how to mobilise it or because they expect the administration to be heavy. That is the starting point for any funding discussion.

The four schemes and what they cover

Subvention PME (part du projet, minimum)70 %Taxe de formation prof. sur la paie1,6 %
Orders of magnitude: minimum share of a project covered by SME schemes, and the training levy as a share of payroll.

GIAC

The inter-professional consulting-support groups are organised by sector. Their logic is specific and often misunderstood: they primarily fund engineering — the study that identifies your skills needs — rather than the training itself. That makes them the right window for a diagnostic or a workforce planning exercise, upstream of the training plan.

OFPPT

The national vocational training office operates the Special Training Contracts. This is the scheme best suited to training delivery itself: in-house programmes, upskilling an identified population.

Maroc PME

Maroc PME programmes cover advisory and consulting work, with coverage rates that can reach a substantial share of the project — at least 70% under some schemes. The scope is wider than training: organisation, digitalisation, competitiveness.

EBRD

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development operates SME support programmes, generally for growth, structuring or upgrading projects. Access is more selective, but the amounts and the duration of support are larger.

The principle behind all of it. These schemes fund a project, not an invoice. An application describing “three days of management training” has little chance; one describing a measured problem, a target and an instrument to reach it has a great deal more.

What is fundable, what is not

Generally fundableGenerally excluded
Training engineering and needs diagnosticsParticipants’ salaries during training
In-house and inter-company training programmesTravel and catering costs
Support for organisational structuringEquipment and software licence purchases
Workforce planning and competency frameworksSpend committed before funding approval
Feasibility and competitiveness studiesRecurring outsourced work

Timing: the mistake that costs the funding

This is the most common and most final error: committing the spend before approval. Funding schemes do not reimburse retroactively for work already delivered. A company that starts its training in September and files its application in October has forfeited the entitlement, however good the project.

The order never varies: scope the need, file the application, obtain approval, then deliver, then evidence it. Allow several weeks between filing and approval depending on the scheme — and build that delay into your project plan.

Key takeaways

  • The vocational training levy you already pay (~55 MAD/month on a minimum-wage position) feeds these schemes.
  • GIAC: engineering and diagnostics. OFPPT: training delivery. Maroc PME: consulting and organisation. EBRD: larger structuring projects.
  • These schemes fund a documented project, not a service invoice.
  • Never commit spend before approval — there is no retroactivity.
  • Allow several weeks between filing and approval in your plan.

Building an application that succeeds

  1. Start from a quantified problem. “24% turnover among maintenance technicians” is a starting point; “improve skills” is not.
  2. Describe the population precisely. Numbers, roles, current level, target level. Vague population descriptions come back for clarification.
  3. Make the outcome measurable. Baseline indicator, target, deadline, method of measurement.
  4. Check your contributor status. Arrears on declarations block access to most schemes, regardless of the project’s merits.
  5. Have an operational manager own the application. Applications written by HR alone rarely describe the business stake precisely enough.

Be One Consulting is registered with GIAC, OFPPT, Maroc PME and the EBRD, and prepares the application alongside the design of the programme itself — because the two are built together.

Check whether your project qualifies

Tell us your need and your headcount: we identify the right scheme and the timetable you need to respect.

Request a consultation

Sources : OFPPT · Maroc PME · BERD / EBRD · CGEM (GIAC)