Professional coaching body, the Association for Coaching (AC), has launched a scheme to help practitioners demonstrate to service buyers their commitment to ongoing Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
Unlike some other accreditation and certification schemes, the AC’s Continuous Professional Development Hours Scheme validates AC CPD hours from a range of learning and development organisations, not solely those that are AC members,
and not solely those only offering coach training.
Practitioners will be able to offer evidence of professional development hours completed from a range of sources, including courses, workshops, learning modules, certifications, webinars and events.
The scheme seeks to “provide an additional level of professional assurance, credibility of services, and demonstrating a focus on excellence with a commitment to learning”, according to the AC.
Organisations eligible for validated status will receive an AC CPD Hours Scheme certificate for participants to reflect the validated hours, and a quality assurance kitemark showing they’re part of the Scheme and to validate the CPD hours represented by the course.
The kitemark can be used within the organisation’s promotional materials and website.
Examples of the types of organisations that may wish to buy the CPD Hours Scheme, according to the AC, include AC corporate and organisational members, tools and profiling providers, coaching providers, HR / L&D internal training, corporates (learning development curriculums), and training providers (short courses).