ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma for Coaching Supervisors
The ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma for Coaching Supervisors are ILM’s most senior coaching qualifications. As a learner, you will develop your expertise in the fields of coaching.
The qualification consists of three mandatory units that allow you to critically review the role and contribution of coaching supervision to the process of coaching at all levels.
We combine the structured framework of an ILM qualification with a flexible blended approach to learning that provides a pragmatic alternative to workshop based programmes with fixed dates for attendance.
You will be provided with tools and techniques to improve your practice and understand how your personality and circumstances can affect the coaching supervision relationship.
For the Certificate, you are required to demonstrate your ability to plan, deliver and review at least 20 hours of coaching supervision.
For the Diploma, this is extended to 60 hours.
Each course is delivered through a unique blend of supervision, work based learning and coaching practice. You will define a set of objectives designed to have a real impact on your coaching supervision practice.
As you progress, supported by your own coaching supervisor, you will focus on achieving high levels of impact for yourself and your clients. Your learning will evolve as you progress, drawing on monthly coaching supervision sessions, structured online learning and a large library of materials.
Credit Value
20 Credits (Certificate), 40 Credits (Diploma)
Duration
6 months (Certificate), 9-12 months (Diploma)
Attendance Method
Blended delivery, featuring coaching supervision, online learning & reflective practice.
Structure (click on the details tab for more)
1-2-1 Induction session
Learning themes
- Principles and practice of effective coaching supervision
- Undertaking coaching supervision
- Reflecting on your practice
- Professional Practice (Diploma only)
Deliver and review at least 20 hours (Certificate 2-3 coachees), 60 hours (Diploma 4-9 coachees) of coaching supervision. The 60 hours should include a minimum of 50 hours of individual supervision and a maximum of 10 hours of group supervision. An additional 8 hours of personal supervision practice is also required which can claimed from the time you spend with your coach supervisor.
6 x 1 hr coaching supervision sessions (Certificate) – MS Teams or Zoom.
9 x 1 hour sessions (Diploma) – MS Teams or Zoom.
Assessment
A series of practically focused assignments and coaching practice portfolio.
Cost
Certificate: £2550 + VAT (£3060 incl. VAT)
Diploma: £3400 + VAT (£4080 incl. VAT)
Entry Requirements
Students will be practising and experienced coaches who have the opportunity to meet the assessment demands. They will normally be expected to be able to demonstrate this through holding some form of coaching and mentoring qualification at level 7.
Learning activities
Each unit involves a number of learning activities which may include:
- on-line learning
- monthly coaching/supervision sessions with a highly experienced coaching supervisor
- completion of reflective assignments designed to help you reflect on your progress.
- a series of practical activities which guide students through the coaching process from contracting to evaluation.
- regular feedback from your coach supervisor and the assessment team
All students are provided with studying membership of the Institute of Leadership & Management for the duration of their course.
Benefits for the learner
- You will learn how to review and build the context, strategy, culture and processes for effective coaching supervision.
- You will understand and analyse different coaching supervision models and their impact.
- You will also learn to evaluate the effectiveness of coaching supervision in an organisation, while critically reviewing your own skills, emotional intelligence and values, to assess your competence as a coaching supervisor.
- You will also have an opportunity to plan, deliver and review coaching supervision contracts with your clients.
- You will develop a deep appreciation of how you supervise (and how you coach), enhance your presence as a practitioner, and as a result, you will clarify your insights into the effectiveness of your practice and how you can develop. Importantly, you will learn how to encourage that for your clients as well.
Those who undertake this programme will be looking to get the very best out of their staff through highly effective, professional, ethical and developmental supervision, ensuring that all team members are working to full capacity in a supportive, innovative and inspirational working environment.
The ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma for Coaching Supervisors are ILM’s most senior coaching qualifications. As a learner, you will develop your expertise in the fields of coaching supervision and accredit your experience with a nationally recognised qualification.
The Courses
The Academy of Leadership & Management is the first ILM centre to offer these qualifications by distance learning. Recognising the busy schedule of coaches and potential coaching supervisors, the courses have been designed by our team (all of whom are highly experienced coaches) to provide a flexible, customised learning solution.
The ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma for Coaching Supervisors consists of three mandatory units that allow you to critically review the role and contribution of coaching supervision to the process of coaching at all levels.
We combine the structured framework of an ILM qualification with a flexible blended approach to learning that provides a pragmatic alternative to workshop based programmes with fixed dates for attendance.
You will be provided with tools and techniques to improve your practice and understand how your personality and circumstances can affect the coaching supervision relationship. For the Certificate, you are required to demonstrate you ability to plan, deliver and review at least 20 hours of coaching supervision. For the Diploma, this is extended to 60 hours.
Each course is delivered through a unique blend of supervision, workbased learning and coaching practice. You will define a set of objectives designed to have a real impact on your coaching supervision practice.
As you progress, supported by your own coaching supervisor, you will focus on achieving high levels of impact for yourself and your clients. Your learning will evolve as you progress, drawing on monthly coaching supervision sessions, structured online learning and a large library of materials.
Programme Content
The Certificate consists of three ‘themes’. The Diploma consists of four ‘themes’. All are designed around the learning outcomes of the ILM units.
Theme 1: Principles and practice of effective coaching supervision
Certificate & Diploma
This theme will enable you to develop a critical understanding of the principles and practice of effective coaching supervision.
It will provide you with critical insights into the purpose, context, boundaries and ethical principles of coaching supervision and will enable you to evaluate the role, responsibilities, skills and knowledge required for the role.
It will also encourage you to reflect on your practice. It will then provide you with a critical comparison of different approaches to coaching supervision and a critique of a range of different models used within the profession.
It will critically examine the anticipated outcomes of effective supervision for different stakeholders and methods for evaluating their impact.
It will become evident to the seasoned practitioner that coaching supervision, like coaching, is a field that is still very early in its professional life and development.
As such there are no standard or agreed definitions to be found. You will need as a student and as a scholar to weigh the arguments, reflect on them critically and think about how they apply (or not) to your own.
By the end of this theme, you should be able to:
- Understand the purpose and principles of effective coaching supervision of coaches
- Understand models and approaches for the effective coaching supervision of coaches
- Understand the anticipated outcomes of effective coaching supervision for different stakeholders
Theme 1 sessions
There are three sessions, designed to increase your understanding and stimulate your own research into coaching supervision in order to be able to apply it within your personal environment. These are:
- The purpose and principles of coaching supervision
- Models and approaches for coaching supervision
- The outcomes of coaching supervision
Each session will highlight key questions for you to consider in relation to your own practice and support you in planning to undertake a programme of coaching supervision. There are reflective questions posed during the sessions.
Theme 1 Assessments
You will complete one assessment in Theme One where you will develop a Professional Membership Body Application. This will be in the form of a number of questions, requiring you to provide answers supported by appropriate quotes from theory.
During Theme One, you will also have coaching supervision sessions which will enable you to review your learning and move onto the next theme where you will reflect critically on performing effectively and ethically as a coaching supervisor.
Theme 2: Undertaking effective coaching supervision
Certificate & Diploma
This theme enables students to develop a critical understanding of the skills and practice of coaching supervisors working with coaches at all levels. It will challenge learners to review and develop their own skills and abilities in coaching supervision.
Students will also keep records of their own practice as they deliver a programme of supervised coaching supervision. It will hone the skills of reflective and reflexive practice and demonstrate the key role of adult learning in the coaching supervision process.
By the end of this theme, you should be able to:
- Agree and establish a contract to act as a coaching supervisor
- Plan, deliver and review 20 hours of effective coaching supervision of coaches
There are two sessions, designed to increase your understanding, and stimulate your own research into coaching supervision in order to apply and reflect on it within the environment in which you work. These are:
- Contracting in effective coaching supervision
- Delivering effective coaching supervision
Theme 2 Sessions
During Theme Two, you will also have two supervision sessions which will enable you to review your learning and move into the next theme where you reflect critically on working with your clients.
This theme is about applying the learning gained in theme 1 to your day to day practice. How you set it up, how supervisees experience it, and you, and what feedback you receive from them. Then thinking about what you and your supervisor make of those experiences, what you have learned from that and the differences that makes to your practice.
This sets up theme 3 where you will be asked to show how you have grown and developed as a coaching supervisor and to reflect on your style and how you would describe it.
Theme 3: Reflecting on your practice as a coaching supervisor
Certificate & Diploma
This theme enables students to critically review their practice as a coaching supervisor, examining their strengths and development areas and the effect that client roles, values and beliefs can have on the supervision relationship.
You will get to understand in depth the source of your effectiveness as a coach and coach supervisor, to reflect upon and be able to articulate your approach; your philosophy, your view as to the purpose of coaching and coaching supervision and how that shows up practically in the way you work.
This will lead to a review of their capability as a coaching supervisor and the development of a detailed CPD Plan.
Finally, students will be encouraged to build their professional profile as a coaching supervisor to be used in marketing documents and to build a viable professional practice.
By the end of this theme, you should be able to:
- Review your ability to perform effectively as a coaching supervisor of coaches
- Plan your future professional development activities as a coaching supervisor of coaches
- Construct a profile and position yourself as a coaching supervisor of coaches
Theme 3 sessions
There are four sessions, designed to increase your understanding and stimulate your own research into coaching and mentoring within a strategic or senior level business environment:
- Evaluating the contribution of coaching and mentoring
- Responding to the client
- Critical reflection
- Moving into the professional role
Theme 3 Assessments
You will complete three assignments during Theme Three.
In the first assignment, you will be asked to provide an evaluative report on the adoption of a coaching or mentoring programme of work at an executive or senior level.
In the second, you will be asked to complete a professional analysis of yourself and your practice and compile a Professional Development Plan for your ongoing CPD.
Finally, you will be asked to develop a professional profile of yourself and your style and approach to professional coaching and / or mentoring. This can be focused on the area in which your work is applied, be that within an organisation, as part of your role or on a freelance basis, and can be presented in a format that is useful and appropriate to it.
During Theme Three, you will have two coach supervision sessions which will enable you to review your learning and either complete your work, if you are working on the certificate, or move on to the final theme, for the diploma.
Theme 4: Professional practice
Diploma only
This theme will enable you to deepen your critical understanding of the skills and practice of a high performing coaching supervisor.
It will further challenge you to review and develop your own skills and abilities in coaching supervision.
As before, you will be required to keep records of your own practice as you continue to deliver a programme of supervised coaching supervision.
As with theme two, this theme is largely practical in nature. It is expected that you will spend much of your time on this theme in supervising more clients, so that you can bring the total amount of time you have spent supervising clients to a minimum of 50 hours of individual supervision and a maximum of 10 hours of group supervision and record the outcomes.
You will also need to make sure you have recorded 8 hours of personal supervision of your practice, which you will be able to claim through your time with your course supervisor.
You will add evidence of all this to your Portfolio, which will already contain some of the evidence for the unit. This is because some of the practical evidence used for the certificate can be transferred to the diploma.
This part of the programme is designed to take up to six months, although it may be that you can complete it in a shorter timescale.
By the end of this theme, you should be able to:
- Plan, deliver and review 60 hours of coaching or mentoring at an executive or senior level with a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 9 individuals
The 20 hours of coaching or mentoring and the 2 or 3 individuals you have already coached count towards these totals.
You will therefore be required to complete a further 40 hours of coaching or mentoring with between five and seven individuals.
Coaching Portfolio
You will also be expected to add to the Portfolio that you submitted during Theme Two.
This will involve compiling further records and reflections of your work, from contracting to evaluation stages.
Theme 4 Sessions
During Theme Four, you will have three further coach supervision sessions which will enable you to review your learning.
Why Our Approach Works
Our team are highly experienced practitioners with proven track records of working with and supervising coaching clients from all disciplines and backgrounds. You will also have access to tools like 360 Feedback and supportive, developmental reviews of recordings of your practice.
Progression Routes
The ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma are prestigious qualifications in their own right. They can provide you with up to 40 credits at Level 7. These credits are at postgraduate level. For comparison, a Master’s degree is 180 credits. The Academy of Leadership & Management can help to identify advanced entry opportunities for postgraduate programmes. For more details, contact us directly.
Successful completion of these qualifications, combined with relevant experience, may also provide eligibility for Fellowship of the Institute of Leadership & Management and membership of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).