Becoming a Coach:

We know that there are other ways you can spend your time and money – be it yours or your organisation’s – therefore careful selection of the programme and the provider is key. Please call or make contact to explore the programme and our approach further so we can ensure that this is the right choice for you. Here we outline our ideas; see if they fit with what excites and engages you.

Through our 25 years in training coaches and ILM based programme, we have sought to create a flexible, engaging and rich learning journey. We see learning as a quest with the end point aim of you being able to describe your coaching signature style. What makes you the great coach you are? What differentiates you and how that might be offered to your potential clients? You can expect a journey ‘outwards’, building your confidence in the skills and practice of coaching, and also a journey inward of self-awareness and self-discovery.

We have sought to design a highly interactive, collaborative, stimulating and engaging programme. The programme is practical and pragmatic, based on ILM’s approach of “action research” – that is carrying out your own practice, reflecting upon it, and then integrating it with theory, to create, by the end, your own unique coaching signature style. Our faculty are noted for their breadth of knowledge of the field and the ability to bring that alive.

The core learning group size is kept deliberately small, in order to create the space for debate and for personal and group reflection. Different points of view, stances and paradigms will be presented, encouraged and explored.

Students will be encouraged to debate and integrate these for themselves to arrive at their own “signature practice and presence”. You will develop your reflective and reflexive practice, a corner stone of coach development. You will find the programme both challenging and immensely rewarding. Our intention is to create a safe learning environment of high challenge and high support.

Eclectic in our use of models, we will encourage you, the coach, to develop your own congruent and integrated model of practice.

There are many coaching models that can be introduced. In this programme, we will be taking the opportunity to explore a number – in particular, we will be using a solutions-focused approach, based upon the original work of Steve deShazer and Insoo Kim-Berg. Described as a ‘strengths and resource’ based approach, it is a powerful way of creating change for the individual.

The programme will be delivered with the use of workshops, one-to-one sessions, small groups, syndicates, web based forums, video, audio and written materials. These are blended to create a learning journey to suit all styles.
The learning quest is organised in four parts – run over one year (Certificate programmes) or two (Diploma programmes).

Introduction to the programme, to the way it works, introducing you to your tutor, supervisor, your learning group, the materials and learning journey; getting started.

Getting ready for the quest of developing your formal coaching practice; to include foundational skills and competences of coaching and mentoring including contracting, reflective practice, ethics, supervision and coaching models. Optional programme Introduction to Coaching available to be taken.

Undertaking your formal coaching practice with clients thereby creating your portfolio of coaching evidence, whilst developing your unique coaching signature style.

Evaluation and reflection on the kind of coach you are becoming, developing a sustainable coaching practice, future development as a coach / mentor and taking your place in the coaching profession, including pointers towards and support in a professional coaching body application. Joining the CoachingCraft Community of Practice offered by the Academy.

We style the learning journey using John Whitmore’s Four Goal Model; Dream goal, End goal, Performance goal, Process goals. We find these ten labelled areas, or ‘Dials on the Dashboard’, to be a useful way of organising the areas for study and your development.

We present them her to give you an overview of the comprehensive nature of the programme, including input on developing a viable professional practice (often missing in programmes of this type):

Creating contracts with coachee, client and wider client system, understanding client context

How you show up for the client, pre-planning, preparation, and being present; trust and safety, coaching mindset; (use of coaching approach, models, questioning skills, creative listening, challenge and presence) Seiler’s 4 – goal alignment, CLEAR – A & R

Skill, quality, breadth and range of your interventions;. Gallery model, GROW, OSKAR etc; agile coaching – offer / explore, interest in the outcome, mentoring, performance coaching, Soul Guide, coaching niches

Global ethical codes, ethical practice, boundaries, supervision.

Skill of reflection on one’s work, coaching logs, use of supervision, supervision models.

How do you know it’s worked? Including endings, evaluation and gathering client feedback.

Sense of self as a coach, strengths and growing edge, your coaching signature style, use of personality models, adult learning models, healthy interest in the outcome. Philosophy, existentialism, 3P’s (Philosophy, Purpose, Process)

Network coach, relationship of self and practice with wider, systemic issues (climate, ethnicity, equality, diversity etc) as well as organisation complexity. Team coaching.

Professional recognition: progress in achieving recognised accreditation, coaching body memberships, CPD plans.

Viability, progress of finding, planning and executing hours required for your qualification. Then, attracting, developing and keeping, appropriate clients; your coaching practice / a business model suitable to you.

For further in depth information, videos, sample reading, timetables and online material follow this link which will take you a page on our Padlet platform.

Please contact us if you require further information or clarification.

ILM has developed over many years of research and insight into best practice, a range of regulated qualifications that are now delivered under the distinct ‘ILM’ brand by the City & Guilds Group.

ILM Levels 5 and 7 represent the equivalent of Post Graduate Certificate and Masters levels qualifications, respectively. Both Level 5 and Level 7 can be taken as either a Certificate or a Diploma, the only difference being the number of hours required for the coaching practice portfolio.

For the Level 5 Certificate it is 18 hours; for the Level 5 Diploma it is 60.

For the Level 7 Certificate it is 20 hours and for the Level 7 Diploma it is 60.

This is why Certificate programmes are run over one year and Diploma over two.

The Level 7 Diploma is the equivalent of 40 credits at Masters level, one third of a Masters Degree and in our experience is rapidly becoming the de-facto standard for professional executive coaches wishing to create a viable independent executive coaching portfolio.

We find that for those professionals wanting to practice coaching solely within the context of an organisation or a chosen closed field, then a Level 5 is a great choice. Please speak to us for further support about which is right for you, your learning style and circumstances.

Having worked with a number of higher education establishments on PGC and Masters level programmes, the rule of thumb is about a day per week, which would include reading, research, coaching, reflective practice, tutorials and supervision. However, that is greatly dependent on learning style and other factors.

The programme is designed to be as flexible as possible. Please speak to us to see how this programme can be built around busy professional lives.