Coaching Professional Level 5 Apprenticeship

This occupation is found in private, public and third sector national and multinational organisations and employers. It is found in every sector across the country including, for example; the health sector, finance sector, engineering and manufacturing sectors, business and professional services, education sector, retail sector, leisure sector, technology sector and construction.

Coaches may work in a variety of locations and environments, both indoors and outdoors, which may require travel and overnight stays or irregular hours. Coaching activity may be face to face or by virtual means.

Typical job titles include:

• Business coach
• Career coach
• Coach
• Coaching practitioner
• Coaching professional
• Leadership coach
• Performance coach
• Sustainability coach  Systemic coach Team coach Wellbeing coach

Coaching Professional

Coaching is a way of treating people, a way of thinking and a way of being which is seen as vital to supporting individuals and organisations in increasingly volatile and ever-changing environments. The underlying and ever present purpose of coaching is building the self-belief of others, regardless of the context, to be curious and self-aware, better equipping them to collaborate, innovate, deal with the increasing pace of change and get the best from increasingly diverse environments. Effective coaching is future focussed, releases potential, and enables transition, transformation and change for business improvement. Understanding self, commitment to self-development, managing the contract, building the relationship, enabling insight and learning, outcome and action orientation, use of models and techniques and evaluation are key overarching areas which feature within this occupational area (and across all the knowledge, behaviours, skills identified below).

Coaches:

• use enhanced listening and questioning skills to increase individuals’ and teams’ self-awareness to enable them to evaluate their own and others’ strengths and development areas, allowing the individual(s) receiving coaching (“the coachee”) to create and deliver bespoke actions leading to positive change.
• Use their emotional and social intelligence in an applied way to support the development of self-awareness, adaptability, resilience, wellbeing, motivation and confidence in the coachee.
• Are non-judgmental (neither denying nor affirming a coachee’s perspectives and opinions) and encourage individuals to find their own solutions and appropriate ways forward.
• Work with coachees in one-to-one relationships, in person and via video or audio conferencing, to aid in their self-reflection, and may observe coachees, for example by attending a relevant meeting, to provide non-judgmental feedback.
• Work with groups and teams, to increase collective awareness and increase accountability associated with making positive change.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with coachees as their primary contact, bringing a fresh, independent perspective to support the individual/team/organisation with the development of its people. In moving organisations towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and embedding sustainability, an employee in  this occupation may need to coach employees at all levels through change that impact on them.

There will be a wide range of stakeholders including line managers, senior leaders and/or heads of the organisation. The stakeholders they engage with may be at any level, including those senior to the coach.

They will engage with Human Resources teams, Learning and Development teams, and Organisational Development teams, learning providers, professional bodies, psychometric providers, coach training providers, the coach supervisor and peer to peer networks.

They may also interact with occupational health, support organisations, faith-based organisations and/or charities etc. to provide specialised support as needed to suit the circumstances.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for:

• The coaching relationship with the coachees, the coaching contract, signposting to other services as needed across a caseload of individuals and teams.
• Quality assurance of their own practice (and their team in some instances), including maintaining continuing professional development, participating as a supervisee in coaching supervision, and using and/or establishing peer-to-peer support networks.
• Furthering the coaching culture.
• Working with a centralised learning and development or strategy team focussed on embedding coaching skills in future or current leadership to better enable strategy future strategy, workforce resilience and innovation and succession planning.
• Where appropriate, embedding a coaching programme around a new system, regulatory change and/or change programme.
• Working with leaders to develop its diverse people to remove barriers that hinder success.
• Working with experienced expertise in middle management and connecting it to younger generations, for example through facilitating “reverse mentoring” interventions.

What knowledge, skills and behaviours are covered?

Knowledge

K1: Theories of learning and reflective practice such as Kolb, Gibbs, Schon, etc., and basic schools of psychology and neuroscience, including linguistic interpretation and application

K2: The theories of emotional and social intelligence, such as Goleman and Salovey & Mayer, and application of the theories to understanding self

K3: Diversity and inclusion and bias theory, including personality type theories, such as preferences for introversion vs extroversion, integrity, ontology and human values and how they impact on behaviour and organisations. The theory of self actualisation, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, motivational theory, Herzberg

K4: The importance of coaching contracting and recontracting, and models enabling its effectiveness

K5: The theory of organisational culture (and values) and leadership styles, and the impact these can have on individuals and their behaviour

K6: Coaching theory, including maintaining good practice coaching protocols and a code of conduct within the coaching process (including “unconditional positive regard”, non-judgmentalism and non-directiveness)

K7: Methods of communication including verbal / non-verbal / building rapport / matching and mirroring. Listening skills, including levels of listening. Theories of relationship management, including transactional analysis, power dynamics, and stakeholder management theories

K8: Theories of increasing self-awareness such as the Johari Window and the journey from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, and types of feedback

K9: Evaluation: theories of return on investment and delivery of value

K10: The differences and similarities between coaching, mentoring, training, counselling and consulting

K11: Relevant legislation (e.g. Data Protection Act, safeguarding) and coaching competencies and codes of ethics described by the main professional bodies

K12: The existence of a range of coaching models and techniques, and related psychological approaches, such as Whitmore’s GROW model, Kline’s Thinking Environment, Gestalt, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioural coaching, positive psychology, metaphor, solutions-focussed coaching and skills and performance coaching. Methods of goal setting, such as SMART goals, alignment of personal and organisational goals, and aspirational/dream goals

Skills

S1: Time management, including scheduling coaching sessions, and self-leadership to resolve conflicting priorities and ensure sufficient time for record keeping and other role activities

S2: Working with those receiving coaching to set clear goals, including visualisation techniques, setting timescales, validating their achievability, recording outcome-focused, prioritised action plans and monitoring progress towards goals

S3: Communication, including (but not limited to) descriptions of the coaching process and roles and responsibilities (including those related to boundaries and confidentiality), and the benefits of coaching in relation to the context of those receiving coaching

S4: Contracting with all relevant stakeholders, including logistics, preferences of the coach and those receiving coaching, considerations of the system within which the coaching relationship sits, goal setting, outcome realisation and contract conclusion. This includes holding oneself to high ethical standards, particularly in the areas of confidentiality (including when maintaining coaching records) and management of boundaries (including their own competence and values, relevant codes of ethics, and relevant legislation, policies and procedures)

S5: Stakeholder management, including a range of challenging and senior people, and focus on their agenda and outcomes throughout

S6: Rapport/trust building and maintenance, including recognition of the personal values, emotional state(s) and response of those receiving coaching, validating their understanding of themselves and their circumstances, dealing with difficult coaching relationships and ensuring non-dependence on the coach

S7: Deliver feedback in a style that is useful, acceptable, non-judgmental and meaningful to those receiving coaching

S8: Identification of patterns of thinking and limiting/enabling beliefs and actions

S9: Questioning techniques to raise the self-awareness of those receiving coaching, including asking open questions, broaching challenging subject areas (e.g. emotional state, characteristics of wider systems) and questioning untrue, limiting assumptions

S10: Uses several established tools and techniques to develop their own coherent model of coaching to help those receiving coaching work towards outcomes. Uses models and approaches from the context of those receiving coaching

S11: Demonstrates emotional intelligence, including demonstrating empathy and genuine support for those receiving coaching (“unconditional positive regard”), and adapting language and behaviour in response to the whole person of those receiving coaching

S12: Applies coaching theories, models and tools, techniques and ideas beyond the core communication skills in order to bring about insight and learning

S13: Identifies energy shifts within a coaching context, enabling these to be aired and addressed and managed

S14: Manages and celebrates diversity in their coaching practice, including demonstrating how diversity and inclusion informs their professional practice

S15: Demonstrates awareness of own values, beliefs and behaviours; recognises how these affect their practice and uses this self-awareness to manage their effectiveness in meeting the objectives of those receiving coaching and, where relevant, the sponsor

Behaviours

B1: Committed to self-development, including self-reflection, gathering information on the effectiveness of their own practice, producing personal development plans and receiving coach supervision

B2: Self-awareness, including of their own behaviours, values, beliefs and attitudes, and attending to their own wellbeing, resilience and maintaining mental capacity

B3: Act as an ambassador for a coaching mindset and positive approach to personal development

B4: Is spontaneous, open and flexible, demonstrating respect and engendering trust

This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:

• The European Mentoring and Coaching Council for Accredited coaching practitioner
• The Association for Coaching for Accredited coach
• The International Coach Federation for Associate certified coach

How is the apprentice assessed?

This section sets out the requirements for end-point assessment (EPA) for the Coaching Professional apprenticeship standard. It is for end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) who need to know how EPA for this apprenticeship must operate. It will also be of interest to Coaching Professional apprentices, their employers and training providers.

Full time apprentices will typically spend 14 months on-programme (before the gateway) working towards the occupational standard, with a minimum of 20% off-the-job training. All apprentices must spend a minimum of 12 months on-programme.

The EPA period should only start, and the EPA be arranged, once the employer is satisfied that the apprentice is deemed to be consistently working at or above the level set out in the occupational standard, all of the pre-requisite gateway requirements for EPA have been met and can be evidenced to an EPAO.

For level 3 apprenticeships and above apprentices without English and mathematics at level 2 must achieve level 2 prior to taking their EPA.

The EPA must be completed within an EPA period lasting typically 3 month(s), after the EPA gateway.

The EPA consists of 3 discrete assessment methods.

The individual assessment methods will have the following grades:

Assessment method 1: Observation with questions and answers
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Assessment method 2: Interview supported by portfolio of evidence
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Assessment method 3: Knowledge Test
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Performance in the EPA will determine the overall apprenticeship standard grade of:
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

EPA summary table

On-programme (typically 14 months)

Training to develop the occupation standard’s knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs).
Compiling a portfolio

End-point assessment gateway

• Employer is satisfied the apprentice is consistently working
at, or above, the level of the occupational standard.
• English and mathematics Level 2
Apprentices must complete:
• A portfolio of evidence

End-point assessment (which will typically take 3 months)

Assessment method 1: Observation with questions and answers

With the following grades:
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Assessment method 2: Interview supported by portfolio of evidence

With the following grades:
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Assessment method 3: Knowledge Test

With the following grades:
· Fail
· Pass
· Distinction

Professional recognition Aligns with recognition by:
• The European Mentoring and Coaching Council
• The Association for Coaching
• The International Coach Federation

College attendance for delivery workshops at our Colchester Campus and will be communicated post-enrolment and sign-up. In-between workshops, apprentices will access their online learning platform to complete self-study activities towards their knowledge and bespoke work-based activities to develop their skills and behaviours.