VAE and Qualiopi: becoming an Architecte Accompagnateur de Parcours on France VAE

Since late 2023, validation des acquis de l’expérience (VAE) — France’s system for certifying professional experience as a formal qualification — is no longer run the way it used to be: a decree replaced a fragmented process with a single journey on a national platform, and created a new provider status along the way, the Architecte Accompagnateur de Parcours. For a training organisation considering adding VAE support to its offer — or already providing it without having updated its practices — here is what this reform concretely means, and what a Qualiopi auditor checks on this activity.

France VAE: what changed with the decree of 27 December 2023

Decree n° 2023-1275 of 27 December 2023 thoroughly reformed the VAE procedure. It applies to journeys started since 1 January 2024, alongside a phased shift to the digital tool carrying this reform: the France VAE platform (vae.gouv.fr), opened in July 2023, whose use became mandatory in stages throughout 2024.

This rollout continued through 2025: a decree and an implementing order for the VAE public service were published in July 2025, and since March 2025 nearly all certifications eligible for VAE have been progressively onboarded to the platform. As of 2 July 2026, 1,693 certifications are listed there — only those from the Ministry of Higher Education are still completing their integration in 2026, on a timetable specific to that ministry.

In practice, France VAE centralises every candidate’s full journey: submitting the application, eligibility, support, building the validation file, and preparing for the panel. And crucially, it created a new status for the professionals who support these candidates: the Architecte Accompagnateur de Parcours (AAP), which replaces the former notion of “organisme accompagnateur VAE”.

Becoming an Architecte Accompagnateur de Parcours: the conditions to meet

Qualiopi certification, the entry condition on the platform

To register as an AAP on France VAE, an organisation must be Qualiopi certified for the “VAE” action, or be legally deemed to satisfy that requirement. The certification must be currently valid, with more than three months left to run when the France VAE team validates the AAP account creation. An organisation whose Qualiopi certification expires in six weeks therefore cannot complete its registration until it has started its renewal — a point many discover too late, mid-negotiation with a first candidate.

If your organisation isn’t yet certified, the process is the same as for any training service: an initial audit with an accredited certification body, against the national quality framework and its usual processing time.

The registration file to complete on France VAE

Once the Qualiopi condition is met, registering as an AAP requires entering, on the platform:

• the organisation’s identification details: SIRET number, legal name, legal form, address;
• the scope of support claimed: target sectors and certifications, geographic area of operation;
• the delivery modes offered: in-person support, remote support, or both;
• the identity and contact details of the organisation’s responsible officer.

This declared scope is binding: it determines which candidates can reach the organisation through France VAE’s matching tool.

The France VAE specifications: what an AAP commits to

Registering means adopting a set of official specifications annexed by ministerial order, more recently detailed by the order of 3 July 2025 on the arrangements for supporting people engaged in a VAE process. This text sets out the skills expected of the support provider, its ethical obligations, and the steps and response times to be respected towards the candidate throughout the journey.

These specifications are not a side formality: they are what Qualiopi certification partly makes verifiable, by requiring concrete evidence of how the organisation organises, tracks, and evaluates its VAE support.

Funding: full CPF coverage since August 2025

For a long time, part of the cost of VAE support — and especially panel fees — remained the candidate’s responsibility, discouraging journeys that were otherwise eligible. Decree n° 2025-663 of 18 July 2025, published in the Journal Officiel on 19 July 2025 and effective from 1 August 2025, closed that grey area: under the Compte Personnel de Formation, it now grants coverage of the full cost of support for the entire VAE journey, as well as panel fees.

This coverage comes with conditions: the actions must be delivered by authorised providers, registered on the Mon Compte Formation platform (EDOF), and up to date with their activity declaration. An organisation whose activity declaration number has lapsed, or that isn’t listed on EDOF, cannot pass this funding on to its candidates — a useful reminder of the close link between EDOF listing and CPF funding.

The Qualiopi indicators an auditor examines for VAE activity

The national quality framework doesn’t set aside a dedicated block of indicators for VAE: it expects the indicators under criterion 2 (adapting the service) to be applied specifically to this activity. Three of them are directly concerned:

• Indicator 4 on needs analysis must, for VAE support, rely on records of preliminary interviews documenting the candidate’s project.
• Indicator 5 on operational objectives must state objectives specific to the VAE process: building the validation file and preparing for the panel interview, rather than standard pedagogical objectives.
• Indicator 6 on adapted content and delivery methods requires a description of the different phases of support, consistent with the timeframes set out in the France VAE specifications.

An organisation that documents these three indicators separately, without explicitly linking them to its VAE support activity, risks having to redo everything while preparing for an audit.

Common mistakes made by organisations starting out in VAE

• Waiting until the last minute to renew Qualiopi certification, when the three-month buffer required by France VAE leaves no room for improvisation.
• Confusing VAE support with standard training in the indicators, by reusing templates designed for training courses rather than a validation process.
• Not precisely declaring the scope of support, leading to requests outside the actual geographic area or sector of expertise.
• Overlooking the up-to-date activity declaration requirement for CPF funding, particularly after an unreported change of address or activity.
• Not meeting the response times set by the France VAE specifications towards the candidate, a direct breach of the commitments made at registration.

Take action

The Complete Qualiopi Kit provides templates for preliminary interviews, operational objectives, and journey tracking that you can adapt to your VAE activity, along with the 32 evidence templates expected during an audit across the entire framework (€297, 14-day guarantee, documents in French). Just starting your organisation and want to structure your offer from day one? Check out the ebook Créer son organisme de formation en 30 jours, or choose the complete pack of kit + ebook to cover both creation and certification at once.