Undergraduate award: Certificate in Coaching

Coaching book with a coaching accreditation badge.

Get set to coach

Develop the communication and interpersonal skills needed to establish and maintain an effective and developmental coaching relationship. In the company of leading experts and fellow students, you’ll also look at coaching as a tool for personal development.

Ready to start your coaching journey? We look forward to welcoming you.

Why choose this course with us?

Learn at Cambridge, whatever your experience: this is an open-entry course
Access Cambridge teaching in a flexible format: part-time and online
Gain a credited, Cambridge award: boost your learning and career opportunities
Join our peer-learning and Cambridge alumni communities: connection and support, for life

Course Dates

Course overview

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Course information

Course highlights

During this part-time online certificate course, you will:

benefit from a full range of Association for Coaching members’ services
develop study and writing skills

In 2025, this programme received official recognition under the Association for Coaching’s (AC) Accelerated Coach Training Scheme. Students who complete the course and wish to pursue individual accreditation with the AC may qualify to apply for either Foundation Coach or Coach level status. This process offers a streamlined route by recognising the competencies acquired during the course. For further details, please refer to the Association for Coaching.

As part of our learning community, you will:

understand a range of coaching processes and techniques, and the theories that underpin them
understand the interrelationship of the concepts of coaching, mentoring, counselling and training
gain a critical awareness of the legal and ethical considerations of coaching
be able to demonstrate the importance of self-awareness and non-judgemental approaches to coaching
critically review the role of awareness in development and how it leads to responsibility
explore the concept of psychological mindedness and the importance of creating safe coaching environments
consider and critically review the difference between life coaching and executive coaching, and explore further coaching applications, such as team coaching, career coaching and working with specific groups, such as young people
consider the practical aspects of coaching, including managing the coaching relationship, contracting, monitoring and reviewing, and closing the relationship

Course breakdown

This course will run from Friday 9 October 2026 to Wednesday 9 June 2027.

Each term’s teaching usually takes place during 4 live study days (usually on Thursdays and Fridays), followed by 8 weekly one-hour tutor-facilitated study groups (usually on Thursdays).

The live study days usually take place between the hours of 9.30am to 3.30pm UK time. Exact teaching dates and times will be confirmed in the course guide upon enrolment.

Michaelmas Term: Introduction to Coaching: Core Skills and Methodologies

Course (unit 1) start date: 9 October 2026
Unit 1 end date: 6 January 2027
Study days: 9 October 2026, 15 October 2026, 16 October 2026, 22 October 2026, 23 October 2026

What does it mean to truly listen to another person? How can a question, carefully placed, unlock ways of thinking a client never knew were available to them? And what separates coaching from the many other ways we help people grow? This unit introduces the foundations of effective coaching practice, exploring key models, core skills and real-world applications, while giving you the opportunity to begin coaching, and being coached, from the very start.

Lent term: Raising Awareness in Self and Others

Unit 2 starts: week commencing 4 January 2027
Unit 2 end date: 24 March 2027
Study days: 07 January 2027, 08 January 2027, 14 January 2027, 15 January 2027

What drives the way people think, feel and behave? How do our values, beliefs and blind spots shape the way we think, feel and act? And what does it really mean to be self-aware as a coach? This unit takes you deeper into the psychology of coaching, exploring how awareness in both coach and client is the essential precursor to growth, change and meaningful action.

Easter term: Coaching Applications and Coaching Practice

Unit 3 starts: week commencing 29 March 2027
Unit 3 end date: 9 June 2027
Study days: 01 April 2027, 02 April 2027, 08 April 2027, 09 April 2027

What kind of coach do you want to become, and what will it take to get there? This final unit is both a consolidation and a horizon. Drawing on a range of coaching contexts, from executive suites to life coaching, we will ask how the same core principles are adapted and stretched across very different settings. The unit concludes with each student building a personal development plan: not an ending, but a map for what comes next.

After the course

Our successful certificate students often go on to:

start their own coaching business
promote coaching more widely in their place of work, so helping to shift the culture of their organisations
work in a specialised area, such as wellness coaching, career coaching or DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)
apply to study on our MSt in Coaching programme for advanced practitioners.

As part of our open and inclusive learning environment, you can enjoy the world-class resources and expertise of the University of Cambridge wherever you are on your academic journey.

Our video-based teaching platforms offer a flexible way to access lectures, while our Virtual Learning Environment makes it easy to study and learn online and interact with your tutor and fellow students.

Our teaching methods include lectures, presentations, and interactive and experiential learning activities. We will also give you reading and assignments to complete outside of classroom sessions.

You will demonstrate your learning using a range of assignments submitted at the end of each unit.
You are required to undertake an observed coaching session during the course, which will be assessed on a pass/fail basis against the Association of Coaching (AC) competency framework.
As well as the end of unit assignments you are also required to submit a reflective coaching log with evidence of satisfactory coaching practice, consistent with the coaching principles and practice skills as taught during the course. This will be assessed on a pass/fail basis against the Association of Coaching (AC) competency framework. The coaching log will consist of evidence of 20 hours coaching. These 20 hours can include up to 7 hours of coaching with fellow students on the course, including classroom-based activities.

There are more details about how this course is assessed in the course guide we will send you once you have enrolled.

Qualifications

This course is equivalent to half of the first year of a full-time undergraduate degree. It offers 60 CATS credits, which are recognised by higher education institutions and employers.

Hours of study

The award of academic credit is a means of quantifying and recognising learning and within the UK, one credit notionally represents 10 hours of learning. This course attracts 60 credits, so students should expect to need to study for approximately 600 hours in total to complete all units successfully. However, it is recognised that students study at different paces and use a variety of approaches, so this is a recommendation, rather than a hard-and-fast calculation.

SEEC Credit Level Descriptors for Higher Education (2021) here.

Our learners

Catherine, Certificate in Coaching

“The course has taught me much more about the different philosophies and approaches that exist, how to think about integrating them into my practice, and how to understand the research literature so that I can be evidence based.”