The European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) handed out its first individual accreditation awards at the EMCC UK conference.
Liz Hall
Europe finally has an independent accreditation scheme for individuals.
The European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) handed out its first individual accreditation awards at the EMCC UK conference in the final leg of a two-year journey to create the EMCC European Individual Accreditation (EIA).
The EIA scheme will be launched across Europe later this year, following a pilot in the UK. It has been developed in response to demand for an accreditation which recognises the proven practice of individual coaches as well as their professional development. This includes the ways in which they have integrated knowledge, learning and models into their everyday work. Underpinned by rigorous competence standards, the application process provides both a framework for individual development and a quality check for clients.
Eric Parsloe, chairman of EMCC UK’s standards committee and an honorary vice-president said: “This new scheme is the golden seal of approval. Clients need to know that they are working with coaches who have real qualifications, sound credentials and accreditation of proven success.”
EMCC UK helped to develop the scheme following extensive consultation and a market place review in 2007-08. It is built on key inputs from the EMCC’s own European Quality Award (EQA) accreditation for coach/mentor training, the experience of other professional coaching bodies’ accreditation approaches and ENTO National Standards Framework.
Four levels of accreditation will be in place: foundation, intermediate, practitioner and master practitioner. Each shows a development in competence and experience in which continuous successful practice needs to be demonstrated alongside supervision and personal development.
Successful EQA students will be exempt from part of the assessment as they will have proven their basic competence against the same framework through their EQA programme.
Those receiving the EIA were: Claire Hack, Eunice Aquilina, Lise Lewis, Marina Dieck and Vicki Powell (all master practitioner); Ann Rodrigues, Jeremy Gomm, Lindsay Wittenberg, Matthew Arrowsmith-Brown, Mike Taylor and Tim Spackman (all practitioner); and Julia Wheeler (intermediate).
Three further awards have been made since: David Sleightholm (master practitioner), Chris Roberts and Kathy Denton (both practitioner).
Meanwhile, three coach training organisations received EQAs. i-coach academy received awards for programmes at foundation level 4, practitioner level 7 and advanced practitioner level 7; Blue Sky Coaching at foundation level 4 award for its training programme; and the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) an award for its intermediate level programme.
Both i-coach academy and AoEC already hold EQA status for other training programmes.
l For further information about EIA, contact Claire at: UK.IA@emccouncil.org
Logica shares community coaching
A community of internal coaches from companies including LogicaCMG, BT and Network Rail, was launched on 29 June. “The intention is to create a community of internal coaches to share best practice and development,” said Mark Waight, group director of coaching at LogicaCMG.
Community members will support each other via discussion threads. In the longer term, it is hoped that internal coaches and coach supervisors will be shared across participant organisations.
Waight said he hoped a consistent framework would be developed. The community will be aligned to the International Coach Federation.