As of October 2016 the number and type of coaching hours you can apply towards your ACC or PCC renewal will change. We held a Q & A session last week to help our ICA student and graduate coaches make informed decisions regarding the timing of their ICF credential applications. This was such a great call and will benefit our wider coaching community, so we’ve had it transcribed to share with you. The ICF website will also provide information that will be helpful.
Transcript From Last Weeks Open Call
My name is Kelly Smales and I am the Community Manager for ICA. For this call we will focus on people following the ACTP pathway to obtaining their credentials. So what does that mean? When it comes to credentialing and certification there are 3 buzz words. Accreditation, Certification and Credentialing.
Accreditation
So the first word accreditation. So accreditation does not happen to people. Accreditation is for coach training program. We at International Coach Academy have two programs, the Certified Program and the Advance program which are accredited by the International Coach Federation -ICF. This means that the programs teach to the ICF’s core coaching competencies and meet the required number of coach training hours. This allows you to be recognize as a Certified Professional Coach once you graduate from our programs. This brings me to our next term which is certification.
Certification
When you take either the Certified or Advance coach training programs you will graduate as a Certified Professional Coach – CPC for short. You will be able to use that acronym in all of your marketing materials such as your business cards, linkedin profile and your website and that’s what will be in written on your graduation certificate, that you are a Certified Professional Coach.
Credentialing
If you want an extra level of credentialing you can apply to the ICF as recognize globally and for their coaching credential. This is an extra level of professional credential which is highly recognised and sought after. Your ICF credential is valid for a period of 3 years after which time you can go back and apply again and for your credential.
ACC
The first level of ICF credential our graduates apply for is called ACC – Associate Certified Coach. To apply to become an ACC you will need to to have graduated from an Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) which the ICA Certified and Advanced programs are. You will also need to have 100 coaching hours, a minimum of 75% of which are paid. You don’t need to have any pro bono or free hours in that 100 hours. They can be 100% paid hours but with a minimum of 75 house with at least 8 different clients.
Reading from the ICF information release for ACC it says “beginning October 1st 2016 at 12am New York time (their very precise) all ACC applicants will be required to complete 100 hours of clients coaching experienced following the start of their coach specific training.”
So the number of coaching hours you need have not changed you still need 100 hours, you still need 8 clients and 75% still has need to be paid. But the difference is that up and till now or up until October 1st you could apply to your ACC with your 100 hours of which some of those coaching hours occurred before you started coach training. And as now as of October 1st you would not be able to use those hours towards your 100 hours of coaching that you accumulated before you started coach training.
PCC
Some people have a lot more coaching hours and experience than 100 hours and they will skip over their ACC and apply directly for their PCC which is Professional Certified Coach. The requirements for PCC is where some of the big changes are happening. Currently you need 750 coaching hours with 675 hours which are paid and include at least 25 different clients.
As of October 1st 2016 the number of required coaching hours will go down from 750 to 500 hours of which 450 hours need to be paid hours with at least 25 different clients and at least 50 of these coaching hours must have occurred within the last 18 months.
Reading from the ICF information release for PCC “effective October 1st 2016 at 12 AM New York time. All PCC applicants will be required to demonstrate via a coaching log that they have 500 hours of coaching experience with at least 25 clients following the start of coach specific training of which 50 hours are within the last 18 months.” Some of our students already have 750 coaching hours but if they don’t graduate from a program by October 2016 and able to apply PCC before October 1st they are at the risk of not being about to count those coaching hours.
3 example scenarios
Scenario 1
The 1st scenario is if you’re a current ICA student that had no prior coaching experience before you enrolled with ICA then these changes don’t really affect you at all.
Scenario 2
The 2nd scenario is for current ICA student or graduate who have some prior coaching experienced. So an example if you enrolled at ICA and you already had 50 hours of coaching experience then the ICF October changes may affect you depending on when you plan to graduate.
Scenario 3
And the last scenario which is the one that keeps popping the last couple of weeks is for those people who have lots of coaching experienced. Some of you has several hundred hours of prior coaching experienced but who have not taken any coach specific training. This really affects you in the sense that if you have an intention to apply for your ICF credential, if you wait until after October 1st you won’t be able to count any of those coaching hours that you accumulated prior to starting your accredited coach training program.
So what we have done at International Coach Academy is developed a fast track option so you can graduate in time to apply for your credential before October 1st 2016 and count your coaching hours prior to enrolling. This is going to take some dedication and work on your part. But we have developed an option which will allow you to graduate as a Certified Professional Coach between now and the last week of September in order to give you time to apply for your credential before October 1st. Speak to a program advisor if you need to enroll this month.