Accreditation Process

IRCM Professional Body Accreditation is valid for five years provided the annual Registered fee is paid, and the Professional Body retains its Registered status.
Should any aspect of the Professional Bodies accreditation/credential policy or process change within the five-year period, a re-accreditation may be required more frequently.

The IRCM recognises that not all Professional Bodies work across the full spectre of the Coaching and Mentoring industry, therefore each Professional Body is asked to confirm their focus within the industry:

  • Coaching Industry only
    • Coaches
    • Commercial Training Organisations
    • Coaches and Commercial Training Organisations
  • Mentoring Industry only
    • Mentors
    • Commercial Training Organisations
    • Mentors and Commercial Training Organisations
  • Coaching and Mentoring Industry 
    • Coaches and Mentors
    • Commercial Training Organisations
    • Coaches, Mentors, and Commercial Training Organisations

There is no restriction to the number of Accreditation/Credential awards that can be issued by one Professional Body.

Professional Bodies that offer Coach and/or Mentor Accreditation/Credentialing and/or Commercial Training Organisations - Coach training and/or Commercial Training Organisations - Mentor training, are required to upload all documentation providing full details of requirements, validation, and accreditation/credential awarding; including the policies and processes.  This must include the process for those coaches and/or mentors nd/or Commercial Training Organisations who do not gain the accreditation/credential and the policies and processes around this.

Each Professional Body agrees to:

  • abide by the industry Codes of Conduct, and include these in their Codes of Conduct.
  • abide by the industry Standards and Ethics, and include these in their Standards and Ethics.
  • abide by the industry's Core Competencies, and include these in their Core Competencies.
  • abide by the industry Disciplinary Procedures, and refer to this in their Disciplinary Procedures.
  • recognise the industry Ombudsman Service, and agree to refer to this in their Complaints Procedure.

The IRCM recognises that the industry Codes of Conduct, Standards, Ethics, and Core Competencies are defined by the Professional Bodies, Formal Education Bodies/Commercial Training Organisations, Coaches, Mentors, and Commercial organisations that are Registered with the IRCM. 
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Therefore, the Codes of Conduct, Standards, Ethics, and Core Competencies that have been defined determine the minimum requirements for coaches, mentors, and organisations that operate in the coaching and mentoring industry.
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It is for this reason, the IRCM does expect that the Codes of Conduct, Standards, Ethics, and Core Competencies defined by each Professional Body will have additional points.

Each Professional Body is required to submit all relevant documentation to support its application for Accreditation with the IRCM.

Where the Professional Body accredits more than one area of the industry, the IRCM accepts that the documentation submitted under each area may be the same.

Click this link to upload the relevant documentation for the Accreditation procedure.

Application Webpage
- please provide the URL to the application webpage.

Where there is no URL and the application is undertaken by a manual process, please include the URL that explains this and provides access to the relevant manual form(s).

How many accreditation/credential awards are issued by this Professional Body:
The IRCM does not assume those Professional Bodies that accredit/credential more than one area of the industry, that the accreditation/credential awards are the same.

    1. Coaches
    2. Mentors
    3. Commercial Training Organisations - Coach training
    4. Commercial Training Organisations - Mentor training

For each accreditation/credential award please provide the following:
Please enter '0' if one or more of the following categories is not required.

    1. Accreditation/Credential Award Name.
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    2. Accreditation/Credential Award Initials - these are generally the initials that may suffix a person/organisations name.
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    3. Education/Training Hours required - what is the minimum level of training required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
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    4. Experience? Number of hours - how many hours of experience is required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
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    5. Support:
      1. Coaching hours required - how many hours of coaching is required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
      2. Coaching - how often - how often is the coaching required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
      3. Mentoring hours required - how many hours of mentoring is required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
      4. Mentoring - how often - how often is mentoring required to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
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    6. Additional details/requirements/categories - is there are further requirements needed to gain this level of accreditation/credential?
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    7. Where the Professional Body uploads the badge awarded, the IRCM will publish the badge for confirmation to consumers.

You are required to upload your Accreditation/Credential Policies.

Where the Professional Body has different policies for Coaches, Mentors, and Commercial Training Organisations; please can you highlight the differences.

You are required to upload your Accreditation/Credential Process.
This is your step-by-step process to verify if the Coach, Mentor, or Commercial Training Organisation meets the accreditation/credential requirements.

Where the Professional Body has different processes for Coaches, Mentors, and Commercial Training Organisations; please can you highlight the differences.

It is important that the process includes where a Coach, Mentor, or Commercial Training Organisation does not gain the accreditation/credential award; and what happens next.

To ensure that the accreditations/credentials are being awarded by a team who are experienced and knowledgeable, the qualification and experience of the team undertaking each accreditation/credential award must be included.

Each Professional Body is required to:

  1. upload your accreditation/credential team's qualifications and accreditations/credentials.
  2. upload your process for selecting each member of the accreditation/credential team.
  3. include the process when a member of the team leaves and you recruit a replacement member.
  4. explain how you select which member of your accreditation/credential team is allocated to each application.

Each Professional Body has committed to abide by the industry's codes of conduct, standards, ethics, core competencies, and disciplinary procedures; at the same time including these in its own codes of conduct, standards, ethics, core competencies, and disciplinary procedures.  Therefore, each Professional Body is required to submit the following documentation:

  • a summary of all Codes of Conduct
  • Standards and Ethics
  • Core Competencies
  • Disciplinary Procedure
    1. how you investigate complaints.
    2. how you determine Outcomes.
    3. what Sanctions are applied and they are determined.

  1. Upon receipt of the accreditation application, the Head of Accreditation will appoint the team to participate in the verification process.
    This team may include one or more IRCM Directors.
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  2. The application webpage is reviewed, and the details are verified.
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  3. Details of the accreditation/credentials are studied.
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  4. The Policies are reviewed for accuracy and completeness.
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  5. The Accreditation/Credential awarding process is reviewed for completeness.
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  6. Each member of the Accreditation/Credential team is validated against competence, qualification, and experience for undertaking an accreditation/credential awarding role.
    The selection of the Accreditation/Credential team is understood.
    The qualification of each team member is assessed in line with their responsibilities.
    The experience of each team member is assessed in line with their responsibilities.
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  7. The Codes of Conduct summary is verified against the details Codes.
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  8. The Standards and Ethics are verified against the industry Standards and Ethics, where the expectation is that 100% of the industry Standards and Ethics are included.
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  9. The Core Competencies are verified against the industry Core Competencies, where the expectation is that 100% of the industry Core Competencies are included.
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  10. The Disciplinary Procedure is understood.
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  11. The Complaints Procedure is verified using a fair and impartial policy.
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  12. Accreditation/Credential processes are verified against how Coaches, Mentors, or Commercial Training Organisations:
    • are awarded their accreditation/credential.
    • are not awarded their accreditation/credential.
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  13. Accreditation/Credential renewal processes are understood.

The IRCM's role in awarding accreditation is not to judge a Professional Bodies requirements for accreditation/credential, but to validate their processes and the competence of the team undertaking the role.

As part of the outcome, the IRCM will provide the status of each Professional Body that applies for IRCM Accreditation and feedback as to their findings.

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Application Form

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Submit all relevant documentation

© Copyright 2012 - 2022 International Regulator of Coaching and Mentoring, CIC. All Rights Reserved.
Version 3: August 2022

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Currently, all information provided by and correspondence with the IRCM is in English.