Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) has been offering the Bachelor of Counselling programme for more than ten years, and has served the needs of Singapore's counselling landscape well. While counselling presupposes problems that clients bring to the table that may need to be resolved at the unconscious level, coaching has a developmental and forward-looking flavour to it. Coaching aims to help individuals realise their full potentials in their personal and professional lives.
Our Graduate Diploma in Professional Life-coaching (GDPLC) is positioned to provide life-coaching education for degree holders who wish to prepare for a career in professional life-coaching, and for others who can benefit from life-coaching education in their current careers. Professional life-coaching is empowering for persons in careers like counselling, social work, teaching, human resource management, business, psychology, and those in leadership positions. The skill sets would enable the incumbents in these roles to coach not only their direct clients, but also staff under their supervision.
According to the 2016 International Coaching Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Study in 137 countries, commissioned by ICF and undertaken by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the coaching profession has continued to evolve. With regard to future obstacles, one of the main concerns expressed by coach practitioners was untrained individuals who call themselves coaches.
Our GDPLC aims to equip individuals who like to coach others; and to do it well and competently. The programme ensures that the core coaching competencies stipulated by the ICF are taught to our students. The core competencies are broadly categorised into the following areas: (1) Foundation; (2) Co-creating the Relationship; (3) Communicating Effectively; (4) Cultivating Learning and Growth. Graduates are able to personally undertake on their own, via the ICF "Portfolio" Track, the credentialing process to have themselves certified as a coach if they so wish to. SUSS does not endorse any coaching association and entrust the credentialing responsibility to graduates, as each professional association have their own focus and criteria for credentialing applicants to fulfil.