With more than 40 million accounts opened and an available credit sometimes exceeding several thousand euros per user, the personal training account has established itself as one of the flagship tools of training policy in France. However, since 2021, its use has generated a flow of drifts: aggressive canvassing, organized scams, ghost or unsuitable training, and above all, a logic of opportunistic consumption which often distances the device from its initial purpose. For micro-entrepreneurs, the promise of a ramp-up in free skills has been transformed, in many cases, in a source of mistrust or loss of time.
Large -scale diverted training credits
The CPF is based on a simple logic: each asset combines training rights, monetized in the form of euros usable to finance certifying courses. Originally designed to promote the rise in skills in trades in tension or retraining, the system was quickly unscrewed. Unscrupulous platforms have offered unnecessary training, not adapted to the concrete needs of the self -employed, sometimes sold at the maximum price to exhaust the credit. The initial absence of systematic control over the referenced organizations has enabled certain players to flood the market for generic content, overcharged, and very far from realities on the ground. The consequence: self-employed entrepreneurs mobilize their CPF not to learn a profession or structure their activity, but to follow a standardized course, often modeled on a marketing argument much more than on a real need.
Commercial pressure that has become unmanageable
Telephone and SMS canvassing, however prohibited as part of the CPF, has exploded in recent years. Between 2021 and 2023, the Caisse des Dépôts identified several million cases of fraud attempts or forced registration. Calls are multiplying, often with pressing messages: “Your CPF credit expires soon”,, “You only have a few days left to take advantage of your rights”, or “Training offered, without advance of costs”. Behind these slogans are hidden automatic inscriptions, identity theft or pure and simple diversions. In some cases, self -employed discover that their account has been emptied for training never followed, which they will then have to justify the administration. This deleterious climate has largely contributed to discrediting the CPF in the eyes of many micro-entrepreneurs, who end up turning away from a fundamental right.
A plethoric offer, but not very suitable for the self -employed
The majority of training available via the CPF target employees in office or job seekers. The specific needs of the self -employed – legal structuring, taxation, commercial management, operational digital marketing – remain little covered or drowned in a generic offer. Result: the user who wishes to put on skills on concrete subjects is faced with too theoretical courses, sometimes designed to check administrative boxes more than to transmit tools immediately exploitable. Many micro-entrepreneurs end up abandoning the process, failing to spot an offer that precisely responds to their issues. The research interface, often confused, promotes the most visible training – not necessarily the most relevant.
Financial pressure training organizations
For approved organizations, the race for visibility on the my training platform pushes volume strategies. Some adapt their commercial discourse to the SEO algorithm rather than the needs of the beneficiaries. Sessions are mounted on the chain, with reused content, standardized supports, and sometimes trainers far from the field. Satisfaction assessments, which condition their maintenance on the platform, become a goal in itself. This logic pushes certain actors to promise results that are impossible to achieve, to simplify the routes to the extreme, or to promise non -existent outlets. This commercial pressure harms the real quality of support and weakens the perception of the CPF as a serious tool for professional development.
A hardening of the rules, but still limited effects
Faced with drifts, the public authorities reacted: Obligation of FranceConnect identification, strengthening of organism control, abolition of canvassing, reinforced verification of RNCP titles. Since 2023, a dependent remains have been under experimentation to empower users. If these measures have made it possible to reduce certain abuses, they have not restored confidence. The micro-entrepreneurs who use the CPF wisely must justify their approach, come up against longer deadlines, or navigate in a more complex administrative ecosystem. The paradoxical effect is real: serious users undergo an increased procedure, while certain experienced fraudsters continue to circumvent the rules by professionalizing themselves in abuse.
Useful uses, but too rarely valued
Despite these drifts, the CPF remains a potentially powerful tool for micro-entrepreneurs. Certain French platforms, such as the French school, Formaseo or Livementor, have developed courses designed for the self -employed, with concrete modules on the creation of activity, prospecting or organization. However, these offers remain drowned in a global flow of low -skilled content. Those who really take advantage of the CPF are often those who already know the right references or who have been accompanied in their selection. In the absence of a reliable recommendation system or a sectoral logic, the CPF remains a universal window, but not very readable, and often counterproductive for the self-employed or poorly informed.
A public budget that attracts opportunistic logics
The success of the CPF also is the extent of the sums mobilized. Each year, several billion euros are engaged by the Caisse des Dépôts to finance these training courses. This volume naturally attracted new entrants, often more motivated by the capture of this windfall than by the real support of the beneficiaries. Companies have been mounted exclusively to operate this market, by multiplying the capture campaigns via social networks, sometimes with strategies close to those used in e-commerce or affiliation. The educational course then becomes a product like any other, formatted to optimize the conversion rate, and not to respond to a logic of transmission. In this context, the micro-entrepreneurs struggle to distinguish serious offers from a communication thought only to capture their credit, at the risk of losing a tool which, well used, could be a real skills rise lever.
