6 Responses

1. is certification what you want?
   A good question, because coaching is such a new industry that there isn’t a clearly defined route to take. Some people might suggest particular coaching schools or training courses, personally I believe strongly that you can just start doing it and see what happens. As you expand you current work and interests to move into coaching, your experience will very quickly tell you what you are capable of and what you need to learn. Of course, there are coaching toolkits that you can learn about such as NLP but in my mind there’s nothing better than letting your market tell you how you need to develop.

   Of course, you need some basic skills first although I suspect you already have everything you need.

   I also suggest you go to a book shop and browse through some books to find those that you like (rather than ordering books based on other people’s recommendations).

   You might also find it useful to figure out what you want to get out of being an executive coach, and what you are prepared to put into it.

   Of course, you can come to an Executive Coaching training course can help – I personally find the courses run by PPI Business NLP (http://www.ppimk.com) useful, but that perhaps reflects my interests and those of my clients.

   Have a look at http://www.execcoach.net and other coaching websites to see what other people are up to. My personal experience is that many people wanting to be coaches focus too much on coaching and not enough on building a business – as if learning how to be a coach will make clients appear. Ultimately, the test of your coaching skills is the results you help your clients to achieve, not the certificates you get.

2. Since you asked about certification…
   Annemarie,

   ….programmes I’m familiar with include…

   *International Coach Federation

   http://www.coachfederation.org/

   *CIPD Coaching and Mentoring Certificate

   http://www.cipd-training.co.uk/coaching-and-mentoring-certificate/

   For more modest budgets…

   *ENTO Certificate in Coaching Learners in the Workplace

   http://www.empnto.co.uk/standards/

   (The ENTO site also lists awarding bodies; e.g. City & Guilds, OCR)

   *ILM-endorsed programmes
   (with planned recognised qualifications)

   If you’re interested in learning more about the ENTO and ILM programmes (and how to achieve the latter using TrainingZone or other open learning resources), please feel free to contact me off-line. No obligation.

   Regards,

   Scott G. Welch

3. Value in Coach Training
   Peter Bluckert, who is himself an excellent coach, runs an organisation that offers a range of practical coaching- and coaching- related courses. In some cases, this training can be supplemented by a post-graduate qualification awarded by Leeds Metropolitan Univerity.

   It is important for an executive coach to understand the boundaries of the profession – especially where they might unwittingly get drawn into a situation more suited to counselling, with which they might be ill equipped to deal. Also, there is a strong argument that an effective coach needs to be supported by professional supervision. The practical skills of coaching, too, are not always second nature to people; especially where the coaching required is of the non-directive kind, rather than knowledge-based advice giving.

   So, whilst there is a widespread view that ‘anyone can do it’, an effective and ethical approach to the profession arguably requires a more thorough grounding in the subject than is provided simply by past experience as a practising manager.

   If you’re interested in finding out more, Peter Bluckert’s website address is http://www.pbcoaching.com.

   Good luck!

4. Find a course that suits your style
   Hi Annemarie – I would echo previous comments. Look also to what you have to offer as well as what you hope to gain from certification. Some courses are very psychologically biased and others practial and pragmatic.

   You may find these websites useful –

   oscm.co.uk – very pragmatic and practical programme

   cti.com – courses now available in UK

   shu.ac.uk/schools/sbf – a Masters course through Sheffield University.

   I gained certification through CCUI – Corporate Coach University (CCUI.com) – as that was all that was available at the time (6 years ago!) and suited my style and previous experience.

   Please feel free to call if you’d like to explore further.

   Good luck!

   Marina

5. coaching courses
   I would suggest you look at the Coaching and Mentoring Network’s site:
   http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk/

   They display a wide range of courses from short introductions to masters level courses. I know that they operate a stringent checking of organisations and qualifications. They would also be able to offer advice.

   Kind regards

   Fiona

6. Newcastle College
   I have done two coaching diplomas recently – one in life coaching which although useful wasn’t as thought-provoking as I had hoped. The second was Performance Coaching through Newcastle College and I found this excellent and recognised by the coaching industry. It is a distance learning course, you need to have clients and be motivated. It is currently funded which helps.