Creating a sustainable coach training program

Certification program turns effective coaches into effective coach trainers

For nearly 20 years, InsideTrack has been using targeted, scalable coaching programs to help institutions improve student enrollment, completion and career readiness. For many partners, this includes training university staff to use our student coaching methodology to improve student satisfaction and success. It’s a multi-year approach that starts with InsideTrack taking the lead on coaching and wraps up with the institution running their in-house coaching program entirely on their own. 

As a way to further set institutions up for success, our trainer certification program can work with selected candidates from your roster of staff coaches and give them the ability to lead foundational coach training — allowing your institution to more easily onboard new staff, provide ongoing training and development for your team, and ensure that trained-by-you coaches are meeting our proven criteria for high-quality student coaching.

Building capacity for success

Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime. This well-known adage could just as easily apply to our trainer certification program. “By training key staff coaches to become coaching trainers themselves, schools gain the long-term ability to build capacity to best meet their needs — today and for years to come,” says Megan Breiseth, InsideTrack Senior Director of Learning & Development.

By the end of the rigorous trainer certification process, staff trainers will be fully equipped to facilitate InsideTrack’s Three-Day Foundational Coach Training — skillfully and with confidence. 

Preparing for training

According to Breiseth, trainers come from all sorts of university positions. “Sometimes they’re managers or student services personnel, sometimes they’re trainers in other areas.” The majority of certified trainers are already members of the coaching team. When identifying candidates to become coach trainers, it’s important to look for motivated individuals with coaching skills, training skills, enthusiasm for the program and the ability to make the time commitment for all required trainings and meetings. 

Putting theory into practice

Manuals and facilitator guides are part of the program, developed specifically to reinforce and deepen coaching skills. Following a series of classes, participants will observe experienced InsideTrack Coach Trainers, learning the ins and outs of being an effective trainer firsthand. Then the roles are reversed. InsideTrack Coach Trainers watch the trainers at work — observing, assessing and offering feedback. Virtual sessions between each of these steps help reinforce and solidify the lessons learned. 

In the end, trainers who successfully complete the program will receive InsideTrack Trainer Certification, showing they are fully prepared to facilitate InsideTrack’s Three-Day Foundational Coaching Training. This allows institutions to onboard new coaches and to expand the coaching knowledge, skills and application across different departments — always with an eye toward maintaining consistently high standards while addressing the needs of the school’s student population.

“Change is the real thing that’s happening.”

For a school looking to provide training using InsideTrack coaching methodology, trainer certification is mandatory. With a program that can run six to 12 months, it’s critical that participants be in it for the long haul, with a genuine dedication for becoming a certified trainer. For staff members, the goal of certification can be a motivating factor — often providing leadership opportunities or the chance to serve as an ambassador for the program. 

As Breiseth sees it, making the decision to become a certified trainer means committing to going on a journey — one that enmeshes InsideTrack’s methodology into the organization. “Coursework, observation and feedback all work together to develop certified coach trainers. But change is the real thing that’s happening.”  

See how one school turned better staff training into better student interactions.

Learn more about training and certification from InsideTrack

Get a sample of our 3-day Foundational Coach Training schedule from one of our student success experts — feel free to ask them anything, especially if it’ll help you and your students.