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In this episode of Growth Dialogues, Ram Gopalan, Co-Founder of Simply.Coach, speaks with Jaya Bhateja, Master Certified Coach and Founder of Abhyudaya Global Coach Academy, about the upcoming changes to ICF's credentialing process. They cover what the changes mean for aspiring coaches, mentor coaches and the schools that train them.
Jaya founded Abhyudaya Global Coach Academy in 2015 and has spent more than 20 years in leadership and coaching, including as a strategy leader at Accenture. An ICF Master Certified Coach since 2019, she trains and mentors coaches towards ACC, PCC, MCC and ACTC credentials, and has coached CXOs and senior executives at global organisations.
She has served on the ICF Global Board and judged the ICF Prism Awards three times. She received the ICF India Coaching Excellence Guru Award in 2023 and the ICF Young Leader Award in 2019. She lives in India, though she'll tell you her work belongs to the world.
In this conversation, Jaya explains why ICF is moving from an evaluative model to a developmental one. From 1 April 2027, coaches will no longer submit a final recording for assessment. Instead, they'll go through formative assessments during their training. Their mentor will be accountable for their growth, not just for giving feedback, and will decide whether they're ready for their credential. Jaya walks through the new mentor credential, which requires 60 hours of education, ICF's BARS training and experience, and explains why it puts far more responsibility on mentors and on coach training schools. She's also candid about the harder side of the change: rising costs for schools, price competition from much cheaper programmes, and why corporate buyers increasingly ask for PCC coaches.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why ICF is replacing the final recording submission with ongoing formative assessments
- How the mentor's role shifts from offering feedback to deciding credential readiness
- What it takes to earn ICF's new mentor credential, and why a coach's trainer can no longer be their mentor
- Why coach training schools now carry full responsibility for training, mentoring and assessment
- Why ICF-accredited programmes must be at least 50% synchronous, and where recorded courses still fit
- How new credentials for mentors, coach educators and supervisors are opening career paths beyond one-to-one coaching
Whether you're preparing for your first ICF credential, working as a mentor coach or running a coach training programme, this conversation gives you a practitioner's view of what's changing in ICF credentialing and how to get ready for it.
