Member Article

Stop Managing and Start Coaching!

Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University has announced dates for its popular Coaching Qualification starting on Sept 26th, 2012.

Now in its seventh year the programme has gained a reputation for providing significant personal and professional development to people in a wide range of professional contexts.

Joanne James Programme Director for Corporate & Executive Development comments: “Coaching skills are now seen as an important aspect of professional development for leaders and managers, consultants and HR professionals. We know coaching can develop capabilities and increase confidence and motivation within a workforce and that leaders value one-to-one development to navigate their unique set of organisational challenges especially during periods of dramatic change. Our participants apply coaching to a variety of these contexts and learn the fundamental psychological underpinning of why and how coaching works as well as the tools to do it better.”

Programme Leader Ruth Leggett continues: “Being part of this programme is a hugely positive experience; it is a pleasure to work with like minded people who want to develop their work places, their leadership practice and the people around them. Interestingly, when people arrive on the programme they usually state their objectives in terms of what they hope to achieve through coaching others and after nine months they certainly have examples of how they are doing just that.

Nikki Wright, Learning & Development Manager at the Independent Safeguarding Authority and previous student of the programme commented, “The programme has been a huge help to me, not only in raising my own confidence but also positively influenced my current job role by allowing me to apply the principles of coaching which I learnt and developed on the programme to my management style; which in term has greatly benefited my team and allowed me to pass on my coaching knowledge to other managers within my organisation”.

Ruth continues “The biggest change in people is often their own confidence to thrive across the whole spectrum of their personal and professional lives. Coaching is underpinned by a fundamental philosophy of learning, continuous personal development and greater self awareness. Often the lasting legacy of participation on this programme is what individuals learn about themselves and their own capabilities. We have several examples of promotions, job moves and increased responsibility from participants on the programme as a result of their experiences.”

Richard Simpson, a former Business Journalist and now successful Public Relations Consultant and Self Employed Coach comments “The combination of fantastic teaching, learning from others and reflection on your own learning are the really great things about this programme. That and the fact that you can fit this programme around your current work and home commitments is great; I wouldn’t have been able to undertake this learning and develop my new career as a self employed coach, had it not been for the part time option to study”.

The programme is delivered over seven teaching days in blocks of two or three days from September to February with coaching practice carried out in the participants’ own time, often as part of their job role. Four hours additional group supervision is provided to support this development period.

For 2012, you can also apply for Student Loan, which previously has only been available to full time students. The cost of this programme is £2,100 for a UK student and special Alumni discounts are also available to former Northumbria University Students.

For more information or to apply for a place please contact Ruth on 07796 996252 or contact us via the website.

If you are the owner or Chief Executive of a small business (2-249 employees) you may be eligible to matched funding of up to 50% course fees for this programme. Please contact us for further details or go to www.nbsl.org.uk to check if you are eligible and obtain an application form.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Northumbria University .