DPC, FIF-PL, OPCO-EP Training: The Guide for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Staff

Introduction

Continuing education is no longer optional at the pharmacy: it's a professional ethics obligation, a skills lever and, for several years now, a genuine strategic tool for developing the entire team. The challenge is knowing which scheme to use - DPC, FIF-PL or OPCO-EP - to turn this constraint into a financially manageable opportunity.

Continuing education at the pharmacy, a framework in full transformation

Since the Hospital, Patients, Health and Territories Act (HPST), continuing education for healthcare professionals has been increasingly structured. 

For pharmacy owners, assistant pharmacists, hospital pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, lifelong learning has become a full professional, ethical and regulatory requirement. 

The National Order of Pharmacists regularly reminds every registered professional that they have an obligation to train to maintain and update their skills throughout their career.

This requirement takes place in a healthcare context undergoing full transformation: expansion of pharmacist roles (vaccination, screening, pharmaceutical consultations, prescribing in specific cases), growing demand for pharmacy advice, generalization of digital tools and online services, enhanced support for chronic patients. Training is no longer an intellectual comfort: it's a condition for remaining relevant in the face of better-informed patients and pharmacy teams that must constantly absorb new skills.

The question remains how to finance these trainings in practice. Three major schemes coexist in France, each with its own rules, target audiences and caps: DPC for conventional training of healthcare professionals, FIF-PL for pharmacists in private practice, and OPCO-EP for pharmacy employees.

DPC: the cornerstone of the three-year obligation

Continuing Professional Development (DPC) is the central scheme. 

Created by the HPST Act and then reformed in 2016, it sets a three-year obligation: each pharmacist must demonstrate, over a three-year period, their commitment to a Continuing Professional Development approach in line with their profession's recommendations. Priority areas are published by ministerial order and revised every three years to align with current public health challenges: medication-related harm, antibiotic resistance, management of chronic diseases, prevention, vaccination.

In practice, the National DPC Agency (ANDPC) provides financial support for activities proposed by organizations registered with the National DPC Agency. For pharmacy owners, an annual flat-rate allowance is available: it covers educational costs and allows, for certain trainings and within certain limits, compensation for loss of business due to time spent in training. Assistant pharmacists who are employees can also activate a DPC pathway on their personal account, with specific funding logic. Everything goes through the mondpc.fr portal: account creation, selection of activities listed in priority areas, monitoring of the three-year pathway.

It is precisely on this point - knowing which activity is eligible, for which professional, within what limits, and according to which priorities - that pharmacies waste the most time. Working with an organization specialized in continuing pharmacy education makes a radical difference. This is exactly what the Pôle Formation Santé, formations pour pharmacien, offers, structuring its catalog around current DPC priorities and supporting owners, assistants and technicians through the complete administrative setup of their funding applications.

FIF-PL: dedicated funding for private practice pharmacists

The Interprofessional Training Fund for Liberal Professionals (FIF-PL) is the joint body that collects and redistributes the Professional Training Contribution (CFP) paid annually by professionals in private practice. In practice, any pharmacy owner who pays their CFP through URSSAF can, in return, request funding for their professional training from FIF-PL.

The scheme differs from DPC on several points. First, it is not limited to national priority areas: it also funds cross-cutting training useful for practice (team management, pharmacy management, pharmacy marketing, professional IT, employment law, medical English). Second, it operates with annual caps and priority themes defined by the fund's "Pharmacists" commission, updated each year and published on the official website fifpl.fr.

For a pharmacy owner, the benefit is twofold: to complement DPC with highly targeted training in pharmacy business management, and to offset the cost of long or qualifying trainings that fall outside the DPC scope. Applications are submitted online, ideally before the training starts, with a processing time of a few weeks. Planning ahead is therefore essential: an application sent after the activity has begun may be rejected.

OPCO-EP: the solution for pharmacy employees

OPCO-EP (Skills Operator for Local Businesses) is the reference OPCO for the community pharmacy sector, which counts member businesses among its subscribers. It funds professional training for employees: assistant pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, apprentices, shelf-stockers, students on extended internships. 

For pharmacies with fewer than 50 employees (the vast majority of the sector), it plays a key role since the employer has access to pooled allowances that make it possible to finance a skills development plan without straining the pharmacy's cash flow.

Eligible activities cover a very broad spectrum: job-specific training (orthopedics, micronutrition, homeopathy, dermocosmetics, vaccination, pharmaceutical consultations, management of chronic conditions), cross-cutting training (management, counter service, stress management, professional conduct), qualifying pathways and professional qualification certificates (CQP), apprenticeship and professionalization contracts. Funding typically includes educational costs and, under certain conditions, part of the employee's salary during training.

The challenge for the owner is to view training as an investment in human resources, not as an unavoidable expense. When used well, OPCO-EP allows the team to develop skills in the pharmacy's new roles without affecting profitability - a decisive point in a context where margins on reimbursable medicines remain under pressure and where added value is shifting toward advice and services.

Intelligently coordinating the three schemes

The real skill of an owner - or their accountant - is to intelligently coordinate these three schemes over the calendar year. Training in priority areas (screening, prevention, medication-related harm, vaccination) will typically be triggered via DPC, which covers both educational costs and an allowance for the self-employed professional. Training in pharmacy management, tax, employment law or management will pass more efficiently through FIF-PL.

Skills development for technicians in dermocosmetics, orthopedics or vaccination will go through OPCO-EP.

The most common pitfall remains letting rights go unused. Many pharmacies consume only a fraction of their annual DPC budget and completely forget about the other schemes. Yet unused funds are, in most cases, not carried over from one year to the next.

Drawing up a mini training plan by profile (owner, associate, pharmacy technician, apprentice) at the start of the year, with the right funding scheme identified for each, is a simple discipline that pays off immediately in skills acquired and cash preserved.

Choosing your training provider wisely

Not all training providers are equal. Several criteria should guide your choice: ANDPC accreditation for DPC activities, Qualiopi certification (mandatory for mobilizing public and pooled funds since 2022), genuine pharmacy specialization (trainers from the field, content continuously updated), pedagogical quality (user-friendly e-learning, interactive virtual classes, practical materials usable at the counter) and effective administrative support.

On this last point, the difference between a provider that simply sells a course and a partner that guides your pharmacy toward the right scheme and handles the paperwork for you is considerable in terms of time saved.

Format also matters. For a pharmacy team that cannot close to free up staff, asynchronous distance learning is often the only viable option at scale. Checking that the provider offers a genuine mix—e-learning, virtual classes, occasional in-person sessions for technical skills—avoids a lot of frustration and ensures satisfactory learner attendance.

Turning an obligation into a competitive advantage

DPC, FIF-PL, OPCO-EP: these three acronyms actually cover the same goal—giving your pharmacy the financial means to keep learning in a professional environment that is transforming at high speed.

Far from being an administrative headache reserved for accountants, this trio becomes a genuine strategic lever when you manage it with method and foresight. Each profile has its scheme, each scheme has its timeline and its accredited provider: the pharmacy that structures this dynamic throughout the year transforms a regulatory obligation into a lasting competitive advantage in its market.