It was in March of last year that we sat down to ask ourselves some hard questions about how we train coaches at IECL.
We were meeting to remap our already very solid and highly acclaimed Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) curriculum against the International Coaching Federation’s changing Coach Education accreditation system. IECL’s coach education experts gathered together in Sydney to scrutinise the ways in which we train organisational coaches, reviewing every aspect of each course, and how they fit together, and fit with the new ICF system.
At the start of that time together we set as our “north star” a goal: to ensure that all coach education we provide will lead to our coaches becoming more confident and competent. In designing the actual program, we added ethical to those two qualities, and six months later, we had become re-accredited, as a provider of ICF Level 1 and Level 2 coach education.
What’s happened in the year since then may surprise you;
it was not what we expected.
Early in 2023 we offered several optional pathways and suggested that our alumni make up their own minds around how they planned their coach education. However, as the year went on and we began to observe the quality of coaching coming out of Level 1 Accreditation programs (the advanced practice of IECL’s popular Level 1 Certification foundations) we took notice.
If Level 1 Accreditation could advance the practice of Level 1 coaches that much, what could we expect from Level 2 Accreditation? And why would we suggest people could skip Level 1 Accreditation, if they wanted to, when it was contributing so greatly to our alumni’s coaching competence and confidence?
We refocused mid year. My colleague, Charity Becker, led the final design and development of a remarkable suite of four core coaching programs which, combined, equip organisational coaches with both confidence and competence, and a strong ethical backbone.
Most coaches finishing up these four core programs have also amassed enough coaching hours to apply for international credentials. And, the number of hours that bring confidence to one coach may be different for others. We’ve noted this year that the sheer number of hours of coaching practice can - but doesn’t necessarily - equate to the quality of the coaching we are seeing.
I completed my IECL coach accreditation in 2006 and yet have continued to study (and benefit from learning more about) coaching ever since. It’s definitely a case of lifelong learning; I will never be “finished”. Having done Level 1 and 2 Accreditation this year, I’m finding my coaching is going from strength to strength, perhaps in large part due to all the mentoring and reflection on practice involved.
I’m chuffed to be one of the first IECL Members who have completed all four courses and can use the post-nominal, PIECL, and this “gold standard” badge:
Of course, we continue to see excellent coaching from our pre-2023 ACTP accredited coaches. And, yes…we’re inviting everyone to “come back to school” to study advanced practice and receive mentoring, when the time is right.
Meanwhile, happy practising; to quote Toni Butler, “practice makes progress”!
Mandy Geddes, ACC, AICL
Director Coach Education, IECL
View Upcoming Level 1 Program Dates
WHY IECL
If you ask around in the coaching industry, IECL is the most reputable coach educator, with 10,000+ alumni and a program of courses that has been reviewed and refined for almost 25 years (we turn 25 in February!)
As one of the very few coach educators in the world that teaches organisational coaching, you are guaranteed to get training that is relevant and comprehensive, no matter where or who you want to coach.
But don’t take our word for it! Here’s a selection of comments from participants in our October 2023 courses:
Hear what our Alumni say
IECL recommends that you look for the blue IECL Coach Supervisor Training Credly badge, which means the supervisor has been trained by us.
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