Short course
Advanced Coaching
Course status:
In progress - closed to new applications
Dates:
22/04/2026 - 24/06/2026
Study format:
In-person weekly
Fees:
£450.00
This course promises to be an exciting departure from traditional advanced programmes that generally offer intense immersion in one particular model but do little to help the coach develop their own practice in ways that are critical to them.
You may be a business, life, sports, health, or financial coach; work in corporate, private or public sectors; with in-house, external, or assigned clients (paying or provided with your services for nothing); with years of experience, or just be beginning. Whatever your situation, your practice will be deepened and developed as a result of attending.
Over ten weeks, you will be supported as you develop plans, identify key areas, gain peers to work alongside, and be guided and encouraged as you put those plans into practice.
There will be opportunities to enhance your intervention skills, better understand clients' needs, draw on evidence rather than hearsay, explore your own attitudes to work and clients, expand client numbers, and build your professional standing.
The course is particularly suited to students who have completed an initial coaching programme, whether recently or some time ago, and are keen to expand their practice.
Join the waiting list
Programme details
Course starts Wednesday 22 April 2026
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings in Oxford on Wednesdays, 6-9pm.
Week 1: Expanding our own definition of coaching / developing our USP.
Week 2: Reflective practice; journalling – for the coach and their client.
Week 3: The mindset of the coach; to themselves, to their client, to the world.
Week 4: Working with strategy; goal formation, thinking strategically, teaching someone to think strategically.
Week 5: Business development for practising coaches; word of mouth, social media, networking, publicity, profile raising.
Week 6: Coaching and education; a pedagogic style, how people learn, facilitating an executive’s learning (insight, assimilation, integration, and behavioural change).
Week 7: Research, evidence, models, ignorance, closed minds, and snake-oil sales people.
Week 8: Motivation; current ideas, motivating yourself, motivating your client…
Week 9: Group dynamics, coaching and facilitating groups.
Week 10: Synopsis, consolidation, personal learning, and further steps.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, ie first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Course aims
This highly personalised and practical course aims to help coaches (regardless of their discipline, niche, extent of practice, and whether internal or external) to develop their practice in a number of ways – in terms of scope, market, scale, depth of interaction, quality of outcomes, rigour, visibility, profile, or impact.
Course objectives
- To encourage participants to evaluate their own coaching practice against their evolving, personal vision for it.
- To enable them, in a supportive environment, to explore opportunities for its development.
- To provide a safe and creative space for participants to experiment with new and more demanding skills, techniques, and approaches.
Programme details
Course starts Wednesday 22 April 2026
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings in Oxford on Wednesdays, 6-9pm.
Week 1: Expanding our own definition of coaching / developing our USP.
Week 2: Reflective practice; journalling – for the coach and their client.
Week 3: The mindset of the coach; to themselves, to their client, to the world.
Week 4: Working with strategy; goal formation, thinking strategically, teaching someone to think strategically.
Week 5: Business development for practising coaches; word of mouth, social media, networking, publicity, profile raising.
Week 6: Coaching and education; a pedagogic style, how people learn, facilitating an executive’s learning (insight, assimilation, integration, and behavioural change).
Week 7: Research, evidence, models, ignorance, closed minds, and snake-oil sales people.
Week 8: Motivation; current ideas, motivating yourself, motivating your client…
Week 9: Group dynamics, coaching and facilitating groups.
Week 10: Synopsis, consolidation, personal learning, and further steps.
Teaching methods
Using a virtual learning environment (Canvas), background notes will be provided shortly before each session so that you can read up on the week’s theme in advance if you wish.Â
Sessions will be made as interactive and dynamic as possible – you won’t find the tutor hiding behind a lectern!
Classroom activities will be varied, involve a range of discussions and creative tasks, in both the full group and small groups.Â
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will have been given the opportunity to:
- have experienced, and experimented with, new ways of looking at their coaching practice
- have a clear understanding of the potential for their coaching work
- have created a medium-term plan for the development of themselves and their coaching practice
- have enhanced their coaching skills, and their presentation of them, through various forms of feedback.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
By assembling 4 short reflective pieces during the course, participants will create a personal, professional practice development plan.
Graham Wilson
A PhD in animal behaviour, and initial career in organisation development followed by psychotherapy training, led Graham to practise as an executive confidant for 20+ years. He has taught counselling, psychology and photography at Oxford and elsewhere for a decade. Recently retired as Coordinator of HE Counselling Courses at Guildford College, his research interests include the use of imagery to provoke positive behavioural change within communities. Graham currently leads programmes of therapeutic photography within Oxfordshire. He has written more than ten textbooks.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, ie first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £450.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
How to enrol
Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form.
How to register for accreditation and assessment
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for this course, if you wish to do so, you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.Â
Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.
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