The Accreditation Imperative

Coaching is a young profession. It’s growing exponentially in popularity, variety, and thankfully rigor. A sound underlying body of research is being developed as:
· more Universities establish post-graduate coaching programs
· academics undertake formal research
· practitioners collect ROI data.
This research is very important to the credibility of the profession.

Equally important, in my view, is the move being led by the International Coach Federation (ICF) to have coaches pursue accreditation.

There are upwards of 160 coach training programs worldwide, with more being opened each month. Of these, 30 schools worldwide have been ICF approved. Some programs are being identified as offering “certification” but involve little more than 2-3 days of training.

There are people using the title of “Coach” who have not had formal training; have not been exposed to the differences between consulting, coaching, mentoring, and therapy; and, have not committed to a code of ethics.

I see accreditation through the ICF as one of the ways that we can help a confused marketplace to have at least a basic level of assurance about the quality of training and demonstrated competency of Coaches whose services they are considering engaging.

I hope that those of you who know me would not put the adjective “elitist” next to my name, but I do stand for ethics, quality and commitment to ongoing development. For me, this is what accreditation represents.

I was delighted to receive my ACC at the end of 2005 and am enjoying the challenge of pursuing my PCC in 2006.

Here's a press release by the ICF-GTA on the topic of accreditation http://gtacoaches.com/pressroom/2005Nov-Credentialing-PR.pdf

Anyone who wants to engage in a dialogue on this topic or has questions about accreditation, send me an email to sue@development-by-design.com