As the global leader in coaching credentialing and program accreditation, the ICF (International Coach Federation) requires that its coaches renew their credentials every three years and there a number of important things to bear in mind when doing so. Here we’ll give you all the info and links you’ll need in order to be able to renew your ICF credential.
How do I know when my credential expires?
Firstly, while the ICF will send a reminder to you to pay your annual dues, currently you will not receive a similar notice for you to renew your ICF credential, so make sure you know when your recredentialing date is and set a reminder for that.
You can find your credential expiration date by signing into your ICF profile. The credential information is at the bottom of your profile page under “My credentials”. Another way is to review your Credly Badge assigned by ICF. In the top right corner of your Credly Badge page, you should be able to view Issue and Expiration Date.
The ICF accepts renewal applications 10 months before the expiration date and the recredentialing process can takes at least 6-8 weeks for them to review your application. and may take longer depending on the volume of applications they receive at any time.
What’s the point of all this?
Good working professionals of all varieties must be continually updating their skills. The recredentialing process shows the professional body — in our case, the ICF — that you are a currently working professional with up to date skills. It may help to know that ICF-accredited programs must also go through a similar process every three years to maintain their status.
Equally, as we all know coaching has long faced an issue regarding the lack of statutory oversight regarding the use of the term coach. You can have someone out there with literally no training being compared to others with hundreds of hours. Read our article on accreditation and credentialing for more on this. But as we strive to elevate coaching in the public eye and differentiate from the pack, it’s vital that we professional coaches demonstrate our commitment to continued learning and development in all areas of our practice and this is also how we do that.
What do I need in order to renew my ICF credential?
To renew any ICF Credential, for all levels you will require a minimum of 40 hours of Continuing Coach Education (CCE) units in total. These units must have been earned within the 3 years since either your initial credentialing, or your most recent prior credential renewal. Of the 40 units, at least 24 of these must be Core Competency Units and 3 must be in ICF Coaching Ethics. The rest can be Resource Development units and we’ll cover more on all of these below.
If you’re renewing your ICF credential at the ACC level then you must also have an additional 10 hours of ICF Mentor Coaching.
For PCC and MCC renewals the additional Mentor Coaching is not required though up to 10 hours of Mentor Coaching (either giving or receiving) AND up to 10 hours of Coaching Supervision (again either giving or receiving) may be used towards the required 40 CCEs for renewal and count as Core Competency credits.
How and where do I get my CCEs for credential renewal?
There are many opportunities to gain your units and it’s always a good idea to be working on them throughout the 3 years rather than simply rushing at the end. At InterActualizer we have a wide range of modules which will fulfill all the requirements and you can locate these in the IA Learning section which you’ll access from the menu above..
For Mentor Coaching you can take either individual one-on-one hours with a suitably qualified coach, or many organizations like ours also offer group mentor coaching. The group programs are both cost effective and also tend to enrich the learning process due to the power of the group interaction and dialogue. Mentor Coaching must run for at least a full 3 months, the groups should have no more than 10 participants and only 7 of the classes are to be group sessions, with the remaining 3 hours in one-on-one sessions with a mentor coach.
At least 24 of the CCEs are to be in Core Competencies and it is important to ensure you’re gaining sufficient of these. Please check with any organization regarding the status as many advertise units but on closer inspection you may well find these are Resource Development and not Core Competency.
At least 3 of these CCEs must be in ICF Coaching Ethics. You can earn these easily by completing ICF Ethics CCE Course online for free.
Up to 16 of the CCEs can be in Resource Development or even more Core Competencies. Resource Development is any learning that falls outside of the ICF Core Competencies, but still contributes to a coach’s professional development (e.g., personal development, coaching tools or personality and productivity assessments, business building, etc.)
To learn more about the documentation you’ll need to prove your CCE’s please go here.
What if I miss my expiration date?
If for some reason you submit your credential renewal application later than its expiration date, the ICF provides a two-month grace period during which time your credential will remain active.
Beyond that time your credential will lapse, and you will not hold an active credential. However, you will have an additional 10 months to renew your credential, but you will need to provide additional CCEs for each lapsed month. Please go here to see the schedule of extra units required.
Once a full year has passed from the expiration date of a credential it is then considered fully expired. The only way forward to hold a credential at that point is to submit an entirely new credential application rather than completing a credential renewal application. That will mean new Performance Evaluation recordings etc. and even if it’s a PCC application you will need Mentor Coaching.
I have all that, now how do I apply?
First sign into your ICF profile. On the menu at the right of the webpage click the Credentialing link and there you’ll find your Credentialing page with information on applications and the button to apply.
The current fees to renew for ICF Members is USD $175 and the process is estimated to take approximately 6-8 weeks.
If you’re looking for a quick way to gain up to 32 Core Competency units for recredentialing then you might be interested in our Empowerment Retreat. There you can earn all them in just 5 wonderful days away training in a beautiful natural setting. Go here to learn more.
