By Liz Hall
For the first time, coaches and coaching buyers in the UK can compare easily the different professional coaching bodies’ accreditation schemes.
The bodies have taken a huge step towards greater clarity around accreditation in response to calls from coaching buyers, body members and readers of Coaching at Work.
The Association for Coaching (AC); Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS); the British Psychological Society (BPS) Special Group in Coaching Psychology (SGCP); the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) UK; the International Coach Federation (ICF); and the Society for Coaching Psychology (SCP), have offered information on their schemes to Coaching at Work to draw together an initial comparison.
Coaching at Work has compiled five tables about the professional bodies, which can be downloaded here: www.coaching-at-work.com/accreditation-hub
- Ethos, rationales and philosophies
- Objectives of qualification and accreditation
- Source of evidence and underpinning standards
- Accreditation levels, who they’re aimed at, qualifying, practice and renewal criteria, and CPD and supervision
- Assessment and examination processes.
Members and Coaching at Work readers have made it clear they want to see the bodies collaborate around accreditation, for example. This was a key message from the Poor Practice 2010 Survey, led by Coaching at Work as a joint initiative with the AC, BPS SGCP, EMCC, ICF and the SCP.
At a Roundtable meeting at the end of last year, member bodies agreed to share the information that they had collated with stakeholders.
“We have been conscious that our member stakeholders remain keen to see the coaching bodies work well together and provide support in their decision making. We are therefore providing the material for Coaching at Work to draw together the initial comparison,” said Mike Hurley, past president of EMCC UK.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) also attend the Roundtable, but the CIPD does not offer its own accreditation scheme and the BACP’s is in development.
The participating bodies are still looking to undertake further research on how their schemes compare. One option is to work with Master’s level students who may be able to incorporate this into a research project towards their studies. Interested parties should email:
Mike.Hurley@coachingandmentoring.co.uk
- See longer version of this story “Clarity around accreditation” at www.coaching-at-work.com/clarity-around-accreditation
- See Poor Practice Survey 2010 at: www.coaching-at-work.com/2010/07/08/coaches-call-for-collaboration-to-address-poor-practice
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 2