Our qualifying bodies

Great training deserves great credentials – discover the
names behind the awards

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Our Qualifying Bodies

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The Institute of Training and Occupational Learning

The Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (ITOL) awards our coaching course diploma.

ITOL has been leading the learning and development field for almost a decade and with their focus exclusively on the training and coaching world, they have been representing the industry at all levels of government and across Europe creating quality, effectiveness and leadership.

The Smart School and the Institute designed the coaching course to meet a pressing need for high-quality coach-training which offered genuine qualifications delivering the right skills to the right people at the right time.

When the Smart School teamed up with ITOL to create the coaching qualifications, we chose to produce something exceptional which would meet the needs of both businesses looking for fast results and aspiring independent coaches who are looking for a balance of real-life practice, genuine support and quality training.

To find out more about ITOL, go to www.itol.org

 

The British Institute of Hypnotherapy and NLP

The British Institute is a long-established, unique, non-profit making association of hypnotherapists / psychotherapists and (Neuro Linguistic Programming) NLP practitioners who are committed to the highest standards of ethical practice and professional competence, and are completely independent of all training organisations or school registers.

 

In their own words

Click here to see Smart School trained coaches describe their journey through the school and what it has done for them.

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Free Coaching Discovery Day
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Watch a course overview video

Watch a short video on our Diploma in Coaching Excellence course and get a detailed picture of the course, the structure, investment and benefits.

This is the perfect option if you don’t have much time to attend one of our seminars but want to get to know more about our course.


Free Discovery Day

Attend a free Discovery Day and find out what coaching is, how it's changed, how you can blend it with your existing skills and how you can use coaching to create a business or shape your career.

You will also find out everything you need to know about our Diploma in Coaching Excellence and how you can train with us.

Discovery Days run from 10.30am until 4.30pm in central London. It's an open, honest exploratory day in which you can get all your questions answered.

If you think coaching is for you but you need to know a bit more about it then the Discover Day an ideal place to find out. Likewise, if you know for sure that coaching is for you but you want to know if the Smart School is the right place to train, this is an ideal opportunity to get to know us.

Go ahead and reserve your place now.


Book a personal consultation

This is ideal if you are already familiar with coaching and don’t need an introduction to it. Instead you want to find out how it would work for YOU and how our course is different from others.

The personal consultation option is all about YOU and how the course would work for you individually.

We can explore what you want to do with coaching, who you want coach, how you can build a business in that area or how it would fit in to your workplace.

This can be by phone or face-to-face in Victoria, London and would normally be with the founder of the school.


Check dates and book your course now

This option is for you if you know you the Smart School is the right place to train and you know what course you want to take.

You can go ahead and select your start date and pay your deposit or the full course fee.

Select this option to go through the booking page.


Smart School Satisfaction Guarantee

Our Satisfaction Guarantee means that if you join the course and decide after the first weekend that it's not for you, then we will refund your fee minus the non-refundable deposit of £500.

This means you can join our course with confidence and security.

Master Coach Special Offer

As well as receiving the full Diploma in Coaching Excellence worth £2995, you will also receive:

  • Two-day Foundations Course in Group Coaching and Facilitation - £497
  • Two-day Being and Meaning Masterclass - £497

Full price £3985 - £2995 on the “Master Coach” (saving £990)

About the bonuses:

Foundation Course in Group Coaching and Facilitation

This is a two-day live training course which gives you solid grounding in the techniques for coaching and facilitating groups from 5 to 5,000 people.

Over the course of two days you will learn key approaches for harnessing the power of the group in coaching, for creating a learning space for each member and for dealing with large organisational and community based consultations and facilitated events.

Being and Meaning Masterclass

This two day course addresses clients issues at their most fundamental, existential level of meaning and the purpose of being.

Drawing on existential thought from Shakespeare to the Matrix and from Nietzsche to Auster, you will discover how concerns with death, meaninglessness and isolation form the foundations of human thought, emotion and behaviour.

And you’ll learn how you can coach on these issues enabling the client to greater self-knowledge and understanding and hence a freedom to act and choose.

Places are limited! to reserve your place quickly.

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Qualification or accreditation?

The Smart School Diploma in Coaching Excellence is a qualification not just an accredited course. But not everbody understands the difference.

Actually, it’s quite simple. If the qualification is awarded by a UK awarding body, then it is a qualification. If it is awarded by any other kind of organization, say for instance, a private coach-training company then it isn’t. It may well be accredited or endorsed but it is not a qualification. That doesn’t mean it’s no good; it’s just not a qualification.

We’re proud that our coaching course is awarded independently by ITOL on our recommendation that the Diploma in Coaching Excellence is a qualification.

Regulation in coaching and NLP

Put simply, there is no formal regulation of the coaching or NLP industry. And that has its pros and cons.

There are many different organisations acting as overseers of the industry, formulating and promoting best practice and ethics and accrediting professional development. There is a richness in this mix that perhaps the strictures of single regulation would inhibit. However, as a customer, it’s good to have quality assurance.

We have opted for regulation from the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning and the British Institute of Hypnotherapy and NLP, both highly recognised in their fields.

The future of regulation?

There’s a lot of talk about regulation and whether it’s ever going to come.

At the Smart School, we’re ready for it if and when it comes having moved to a supervision model within our diploma and aligning ourselves to a recognised awarding body.

However, there is no sign of unified regulation on the horizon and it’s hard to see where any significant pressure for national or international regulation will come from with enough strength to make it happen.

Our view is to be ready and, in the meantime, continue to provide the very best training and support and know we are delivering superb value.