Get a Diploma in Coaching

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the degree-level Diploma in Coaching for those who complete our ‘coaching skills’ course with some extra practical work.

The courses are run by Coaching Futures, sister company of Management Futures, six times a year. As the relatively new profession of coaching has grown so has the demand for clear accreditation.

Coaches themselves have wanted a qualification as a reassurance of their skill and commissioning organisations want it to be sure they are spending their money well.

The Management Futures Diploma in Coaching will be awarded by OCR (the old Oxford and Cambridge Board) and will be at the equivalent of NVQ Level 4 which is the equivalent of a first university degree. The Coaching Futures course has been carefully evaluated and approved by OCR.

A structure of additional work beyond the five-day course has been put in place. During the course the candidate keeps a learning log and also undertakes the first assessment with a ‘live’ client. After that, work is done on assembling a portfolio of evidence which will include observed or recorded coaching, feedback from clients, supervision sessions from senior Management Futures coach-tutors and evidence that the candidate has clocked up at least 40 coaching hours with a range of clients.

The portfolio has to be completed within a calendar year of attending the course. Those who ‘fail’ can re-submit coaching sessions and other material for reassessment. There will be a jointly administered appeals process.

Coaching qualifications are few and far between in the UK or indeed worldwide. Some of the existing qualifications are of little value including ones based on essay writing. Unfortunately, you can be a brilliant coach and be unable to write a 7,000-word essay or be able to write a brilliant essay and be a poor coach.

That’s why the Coaching Futures qualification is based on the assumption that the knowledge element in coaching is fairly small but the skill element is very high. We will be assessing specific coaching skills.

The total time commitment, including attendance at the course, will be about 200 hours. The Diploma offers a structured and satisfying process of self-development and is a sign of serious commitment to coaching.

For people who have already completed our coaching course, there will be a special arrangement. We will be contacting all our former students to explain what these are.

Coaching remains an unregulated profession in that no license to practice is required. Given that anyone is at liberty to call themselves coaches, accreditation of the type now offered will play an increasingly important part in quality assurance.

Management Futures sees the Diploma as just a start to coaching excellence. We estimate that it takes around 1,000 hours of client contact to get to the point of being able to deal expertly with everything that comes along in a coaching session.