Prepare for Your Sample Class
Real Classes with real faculty, students and learning
3 Easy Steps...
Just as coaching is all about making deep and sustainable changes, our learning method is about deep and life long learning. There are still many organizations delivering training in the old fashioned way (teacher up the front lecturing and the students watching and listening). But, we do it a little differently at ICA. We make sure you have as much knowledge and information 'up front' (module download and/or video), so you can come to class prepared to further explore the topic, and apply the knowledge to specific situations or scenarios.
- Prepare
Watch Video Tutorial and / or read module download
These introduce a learning concept, which is then explored and discussed in class.
Download Zoom
Zoom is a free conference video conferencing program you can download to your PC/Mac, or as an app on your mobile device. Download zoom
- Join
Create a quiet space with minimal disruption
Find a quiet place with minimal noise or distraction, and have you microphone on mute if you're not speaking Read More
Be on time
Most classes run for an hour. It's important you dial in 5 minutes before the class start time so that you can be ready to start on the hour.
- Enjoy
You decide how you learn best
For the theory classes, it's up to you how you participate. You might decide to have your video and audio on and actively engage in the conversation. Or you might decide to mute yourself and listen quietly in the background.
The main thing is to enjoy the learning and feel comfortable asking questions when you need.
Image: We recently held our very first Italian Language class using video. It was a complete success!
Who will be sitting next to you in class?
One of they things that makes ICA different from other coach training schools is our diverse and friendly community. There's generally between 10 - 20 students in each class, all with their own unique backgrounds (corporate professionals, managers, HR professionals, yoga practitioners, teachers, health professionals, stay at home parents etc).
We recently recorded a class...
ICA's curriculum is mapped across the ICF competencies and although each module has a different topic or focus, the structure of the class is much the same. A trainer will welcome all students and then lead the learning, encourage participation, and answer any questions. Thoughts are discussed and debated, ideas created, knowledge shared, friendships discovered, business connections made, skills practiced, learning enhanced, trust developed and global partnerships formed.
We Welcome All Students
The first 5 minutes of every class is spent connecting with students. Our students dial in from countries all over the world so this is often a very interesting process. Some students call in early, some on time and some a few minutes late.
Coaching Skills Presentation
Each teleclass is connected to a PDF module in the ICA Learnsite. The trainer will incorporate a presentation of the topic in every class. This will not be a repeat of existing material, but rather an interpretation of the concepts and skills presented in the module.
In this class Rob uses an analogy to explain the difference between coaching, consulting and therapy.
Discover, Don't Tell
The ICA program is taught using a discovery approach. The trainer will help the students discover new material for themselves. This does not mean our trainers never "teach", they just don't "lecture" In this clip a student comments on this style of teaching
Coaching Tip
All our Trainers are practicing coaches, so they come to the classes with real life examples. Things that have worked well with clients and things that have not worked so well.
In this clip Rob talks about the day he decided to let go of his pen and paper with its list of prepared coaching questions, and just trust his instinct to ask the right question at the right time.
Niche Specific Mentoring
We are well known worldwide for the diversity in our Faculty. And this diversity is not just language and cultural, we also have a diverse number of coaching niches represented in our Trainers. In this audio clip Rob Stringer gives students a tip from his professional expertise as a Youth and Family Coach.
Resource Sharing
All our trainers are professional coaches with years of hands on experience. They also come from a wide variety of backgrounds and industries, with many having run their own coaching practice. The resources they share are valuable and practical and provide a further link between theory and practice.
Student Sharing
We actively encourage student to share their personal coaching experiences - why they came to coaching, how they plan to use coaching, challenges and wins. In this clip one of our students shares how she plans to use coaching in her job as a Careers Counsellor at an American College.
Which School Should you Choose?
Are you considering Coach Training but not sure where to start? There's so many options with different schools, programs, certifications and pathways. We asked our community what criteria they used when choosing their school and then packaged it up into a quick checklist that might be useful for you. Let us know if you have any specific questions.