Indicator 18 — Coordinating internal and external contributors

Indicator 18 verifies that your organisation does not work in silos: as soon as several people contribute to a service — internal trainers, subcontractors, VAE juries or skills-assessment consultants — you must demonstrate they are coordinated. The framework's goal is simple: guarantee the beneficiary a coherent service, without duplicates or holes in the programme.

What the auditor checks on the day

The auditor looks for concrete steering traces. A statement of intent is not enough; they ask for:

• the list of your internal and external contributors, with their scope;
• framing documents: mission sheets, subcontracting contracts stating the entrusted programme, briefs;
• exchange evidence: pedagogical meeting summaries, coordination emails, shared schedules;
• how an external contributor receives your quality instructions: teaching plan, materials, assessment arrangements;
• for CFAs, coordination between teaching teams, referents and companies.

If you work strictly alone, with no external contributor, say so at the document review: the auditor will note the indicator does not apply in the same terms. But beware — from the first subcontractor, the indicator becomes fully applicable again.

Achieving compliance, step by step

1. List every contributor to your services, even occasional, and state each one's exact role: design, delivery, assessment, support.
2. Write a mission sheet, or include in your subcontracting contracts a paragraph describing the entrusted programme, objectives, deliverables and reporting arrangements.
3. Establish a coordination ritual proportionate to your size: a kick-off before every multi-contributor session, a mid-point check for long pathways, a final debrief.
4. Trace these exchanges: a half-page summary or a dated recap email suffices — the auditor wants dated evidence, not formal minutes.
5. Centralise the documentation given to contributors: teaching plan, materials, assessment grid, internal rules — to prove they work to your standards.

Field advice

Coordination must be proportionate: a two-person organisation does not need a monthly pedagogical committee. The auditor does, however, expect at least one traced exchange per session involving several contributors. The most effective reflex: systematically send a framing email before every external intervention, then archive the reply — two clicks, one solid proof.

Take special care coordinating subcontractors, since it also feeds indicator 27. A well-drafted subcontracting contract, mentioning the programme, the quality requirements and the obligation to return assessments, covers both indicators at once.

For long services (apprenticeship, VAE, skills assessments), show how information flows over time: a follow-up logbook, a shared tool, scheduled milestones. Auditors appreciate simple dashboards showing, per session, the contributor, the brief date and the debrief date.

Finally, do not invent fictitious meetings for the audit: an authentic, modest trace always beats an artificial binder. Findings on this indicator are usually minor, tied to a traceability gap; they are easily fixed by adopting the right reflexes from your organisation's creation.