Leading global staff development provider WELL Training is among the first in the country to achieve a new professional standard, allowing it to offer apprenticeship courses in coaching to a recognised level.
WELL Training, based in Wolverhampton, has been approved to offer the coaching professional level five apprenticeship, which was introduced by the Government to meet the growing demand for coaching to be professionalised.
According to the Institute for Apprenticeships, the qualification allows holders to “work with a wide range of individuals and teams across organisations, to empower and engage with them to enhance their professional performance”.
The apprenticeship course will cover the theory of coaching, as well as teaching participants the tools to structure programmes, awareness of relevant legislation and guidelines, stakeholder management skills and techniques to develop their own coaching models following recognised best practice.
The qualification was created following engagement with businesses and public sector bodies to meet requirements for a recognised apprenticeship in coaching. The Institute for Apprenticeships said: “There has been a growing demand for the professionalisation of coaching to include one-to-one coaching, team coaching, leadership coaching and for coaching skills to be embedded within culture and governance infrastructures to support future ways of working.”
The team at WELL, which has its headquarters in Queen Street, Wolverhampton, will be offering the training course to anyone is involved in the development of people, talent management, recruitment, management and leadership as well as teaching and learning.
The apprenticeship will reach a standard recognised by other training industry organisations including the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, the Association for Coaching and the International Coach Federation.
Lianne Russell, Director of Teaching Learning and Assessment, said the WELL team was excited to be offering the new apprenticeship. She said: “Coaching has the potential to transform organisations and individuals and this Apprenticeship Standard offers a recognised accredited route for the development of the skills knowledge and behaviours required of an outstanding coach.
“There are only 25 providers, including WELL, who are approved to deliver this standard and of those we are amongst only a few who are based in the West Midlands.
“There have been a number of ways of coaching people so it is exciting that this has been pulled together as a recognised standard which participants can achieve to provide coaching of the very highest standard, either in-house in an organisation or more widely.
“It is great that coaching is being professionalised with an apprenticeship qualification. By offering this apprenticeship course we are giving those who take part the tools to make a success of their coaching work, which can have such a positive impact upon a business.
“With our experience at WELL, we can help businesses take advantage of the funding opportunities including those around the apprenticeship levy, to enable employees to embark upon the new level five qualification.”
During the COVID pandemic, the WELL team have drawn upon experience built up over several years of training staff around the world using video technology. They work with leading national brands, including leading food delivery digital company City Pantry, to develop staff through courses.
Launched in 2010, WELL Training have grown their reputation as a leading partner for apprenticeships, as well as training in leadership, management coaching, mentoring, learning and staff development. They have worked with a range of clients across public and private sector both in the UK and with recent expansion into Europe, the USA, Middle East and Asia.