Clarity around accreditation
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 forward 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)...
I think this is a brilliant – and huge – step forwards. Well done all those bodies and all those individuals who participated. “All power to your collective elbows” taking this forwards – even further. What about, however, some of the awarding bodies in FE and HE? And, where was the ILM in all this? I am less exercised about FE/HE in the UK because they have pretty stringent quality assurance in the form of validation/revalidation processes, for programmes, departments and entire institutions. But, should there not be a forum for ALL bodies awarding certificates – at whatever level – in Coaching/Mentoring? I.e. let us NOT leave it to ‘market forces’ to identify the less rigorous ‘qualifications’? We have Certificates at one end, and hugely innovative, practitioner/professional doctorates at the other…