What is ICF Continuing Coaching Education (CCE) Accreditation?
CCE accreditation is designed for educational organizations that provide ongoing learning for coaches seeking professional development or credential renewal. This accreditation is best for delivering specialized, advanced coaching education.
What Should Your Education Cover?
Your curriculum should be centered around one of the following to help with coach development:
- Core Competencies: Directly relates to or expands upon the ICF Core Competencies. This type of CCE education aims to deepen a coach's practical skills and knowledge, enhancing their ability to coach clients effectively according to ICF's highest standards.
- Resource Development: Focuses on skills that complement coaching, like business development, personal growth, coaching tools and assessments, or other material that falls outside the ICF Core Competencies. This type of CCE education provides additional knowledge and resources that help coaches expand their expertise and support their overall effectiveness, including areas that indirectly enhance their coaching.
Who Is CCE Accreditation For?
Are you passionate about supporting coaches in their ongoing growth and development? Does your course build on existing coaching knowledge? If so, CCE accreditation will ensure your program meets ICF's high standards and help you stand out as a trusted provider.
If you’re offering foundational coaching education or training, CCE isn’t the right fit — you’ll want to look at ICF’s Level 1 or Level 2 accreditation instead. Are you an ICF chapter? You may apply for CCE accreditation through our chapter application form.
Eligibility for ICF CCE Accreditation
To apply for CCE accreditation, your program may offer up to 40 hours of continuing education. Linked courses can offer more hours as a continuing education path. Remember, CCE focuses on additional learning, not initial training. Programs offering only Resource Development CCE (e.g., personal development or business skills) do not qualify for full accreditation but can still award CCE credits independently.
Key Benefits of ICF’s CCE Accreditation
Obtaining accreditation with ICF not only builds your credibility as part of the largest accredited coaching community in the world, but it also establishes you as a trusted authority in coaching education. With CCE accreditation specifically, you gain a number of additional benefits, too.
Appeal to Credentialed Coaches
With over 50,000 ICF credential-holders worldwide, CCE accreditation positions you as a go-to resource for coaches seeking to fulfill their educational requirements for ICF credential renewal, which enables you to expand your reach and attract an audience of motivated, experienced coaches.
Long-Term Relationships
Coaches who need to fulfill continuous education requirements over time are likely to keep returning to trusted sources. By offering CCE, you can build a strong foundation for long-term engagement and repeat clients.
Higher Revenue Potential
Because CCE is supplemental, it’s easy to package with other services, such as mentoring, group coaching, or additional courses, creating diversified income streams. Plus, CCE-accredited programs often command higher prices than non-accredited courses.
Flexibility in Course Design
Since you don’t need to worry about covering the basics with CCE, you can design programs that cater to specific developmental needs or niche areas of coaching, making your offerings more attractive and specialized.
Personal Growth
As you design and deliver a CCE program, you'll deepen your own understanding of the ICF Core Competencies, ICF Code of Ethics, and best practices in coaching. This continuous process of learning and refinement enhances your own personal and professional growth as a coach and educator.
Getting Started: How to Apply for ICF CCE Accreditation
When you are ready to apply, you will submit your CCE application through the ICF Accreditation Portal. Typically, CCE applications are processed within 6-8 weeks. Upon approval, your CCE accreditation is valid for one year, and you apply for renewal at that point in time.
Keep in mind, the process requires a non-refundable application fee. This fee varies by the number of student contact hours in your program. Here is the breakdown:
- 1-3 Contact Hours: $150 USD review fee.
- 4-10 Contact Hours: $300 USD review fee.
- 11-20 Contact Hours: $500 USD review fee.
- 21-30 Contact Hours: $750 USD review fee.
- 31-40 Contact Hours: $1,000 USD review fee.
Materials to Complete Your Continuing Coach Education Accreditation Application
All ICF-accredited programs align with ICF’s high standards for practice and ethics. To ensure your program demonstrates a commitment to quality and best practices in coaching, we require six different types of documentation in the application for CCE accreditation.
Organization Information
- Details: Name of organization, mailing address, website, and telephone number.
- Description: Brief description of the organization that is delivering the education and training program.
- Contact Information: Contact information for the ICF application contact. This person, and only this person, will be contacted by ICF regarding the application process.
Program Description and Delivery Method
You may choose one of the following options:
- Synchronous Learning refers to a real-time learning environment focused on interactions between faculty and participants.
- Asynchronous Learning refers to learning environments focused outside of real-time interaction, including reading, writing, research, and journaling.
Verification of Learning
Asynchronous learning programs must provide robust proof of a verification model within the CCE application. Examples of verification of learning include, but are not limited to:
- Triad/Fishbowl: Participant demonstrates technique presented in asynchronous learning (practice with instructor present).
- Testing: Participant completes a written exam in which asynchronous learning is verified in some capacity by the instructor/organization. An example of the test must be available and uploaded in the application.
- Journaling or Paper: Participant creates a piece of work that summarizes/expands upon asynchronous learning, which will be submitted to instructor(s) for approval.
- Other: CCE applicants are given an opportunity to create and outline a verification model that ensures demonstrated learning of the asynchronous learning material within the application.
Validity of these methods will be decided on a case-by-case basis; acceptance of the model is at the ICF accreditation coordinator’s discretion.
Required Details
You will need to provide the following details:
- Language(s) in which your education program is delivered.
- Target audience for your organization.
- Learning objectives (i.e., what participants will learn from your education program).
- Requirements participants must meet to receive a certificate of completion.
- How participant attendance is monitored.
- Location(s) and date(s) the education and training will be delivered.
Course Materials
Course materials must be uploaded with the CCE accreditation application. Please submit at least one of the following:
- Course materials (participant or instructor’s manual, handouts, PowerPoints, or any other materials for your course).
- Promotional materials (fliers, brochures, or any other marketing pieces for your course).
Course materials may be submitted in the following file formats: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .csv, .txt, .rtf, .html, .zip, .mp3, .wma, .mpg, .flv, .avi, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .xlsx.
Detailed Program Schedule
You are required to provide a detailed schedule with instructional time for the program submitted for accreditation. Please ensure the program schedule contains the following:
- Number of hours spent in training (e.g., 2.5 hours). Do not include breaks.
- Instructional time; i.e., actual clock time spent in training (e.g., 8–10:30 a.m.). Do not include breaks.
- Name of instructor delivering that portion of the training.
- Description of the content being covered and the method of delivery.
- CCE category (i.e., Core Competencies or Resource Development).
- Download a sample detailed program schedule below. Using this form will make the program review process easier and more efficient.
Unlock New Opportunities With ICF Event Calendar Access
Reach new audiences when you post your CCE programs to our online events calendar. This is a great way to share your educational opportunities with coaches around the world. Together we can shape the future of coaching, one event at a time.
