LAUNCH OF THE COACHING CONNECTIONS PROGRAMME AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

January has been a great month for Thrive Coaching & Development!  One of the highlights was the launch of the Coaching Connections programme at Queen’s with an information session for staff who were interested in completing the programme. 

We won the tender to deliver this programme last year, supporting Queen’s to expand their internal coaching pool by delivering an ILM Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring in Organisations.

There was phenomenal interest in the programme, with a hundred people attending the information session.  For me, that's a testimony to the level of interest in coaching and to the quality of the ILM level 5 qualification. 

I started my own coaching development 15 years ago with this qualification and have been delivering it ever since.  It is a privilege, and one that I love, to share participant's development of coaching skills and seeing the impact of those skills and behaviours in their workplace, and also, very often, their lives. 

I am employed by ILM as an External Quality Advisor, providing advice and guidance to other ILM centres who deliver this qualification, as well as auditing their programmes.  That means I have attended additional specialist training about the requirements of the qualification and developed and agreed best practice approaches to the assessments.

In my last 15 years of organisational coaching I have spoken to many people who have attended other types of coach training.  I could have chosen to go a different route with the business and the professional coach skills programmes that we offer.

I chose to offer the ILM accredited programme because it is a rigorous qualification, that requires significant commitment, over a longer timescale.  It sits on the national qualification framework, so participants get a properly recognised qualification, not just a certificate that I have created.

We had to prove our own competency and experience to be able to deliver it, and will be audited on an annual basis.

And I like that about it, because it ensures quality.  As coaches we are privileged to work with our clients, to develop that relationship of trust, support and challenge, and to be a small part of the transformational results it brings for our clients.  The training that coaches receive need to reflect the importance and the complexity of the coaching role.

Participants will get comprehensive training, opportunities to practice, support to complete their first 18 hours of coaching, and will record and reflect on their own development as well as the outcomes of their coaching. 

When I deliver this programme, I want to ensure that participants fully understand coaching, understand themselves better, and have developed the key skills, practiced those skills and embedded them in their own unique coaching practice.  I want them to be confident and capable coaches, who are then able to deliver real results for their clients, whether that is as an internal coach at Queens, an HR Partner providing coaching as part of their job or an external coach providing coaching for a range of clients. 

ILM Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring in Organisations

The programme consists of 3 units:

• Understanding the Skills, Principles and Practice of Effective Coaching and Mentoring within an Organisational Context

• Undertaking Effective Coaching or Mentoring within an Organisational Context

• Reviewing Own Ability as a Coach or Mentor within an Organisational Context 

Course Outline

• 2 day initial workshop defining coaching, building the essential coaching skills and introducing a solution focused coaching model

• 4 one day interactive workshops to build up those coaching skills, provide opportunities for real work practice and develop personal insights and awareness essential for effective coaching

In my own ongoing coaching development, I have learned so much, developed and grown through my 1-1 supervision sessions.  These are an integral part of our programme delivery:

• One to one coaching supervision sessions to encourage reflection on learning, and build confidence and capability in the development of participant’s own coaching approach

And of course, since it is an accredited programme, we support participants to complete the assignment and develop their coaching portfolio.  So we provide:

• tutorial support, template assignments, advice and guidance, and feedback on draft submissions included

I am so looking forward to our first 2 day workshop at the end of February and starting to work with staff at Queens on their own personal coaching development.  And then seeing the impact this has on their internal clients. 

Get in Touch

We are delivering this course at Queens, but we will also be offering this an open course later in the year.  If you would like any more information about the open programme, please get in touch with marie@thrivecoachingdevelopment.com or 07729 435208.