Professional Coaching Course

A transformative, thorough and rigorous coaching certification programme

CFC Professional Coaching Course

Professional Coaching Course
Starting virtually 21 October 2025

A transformative year-long certification course that is designed to maximize learning and development in a coaching context using proven methodology.

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How this Live-Virtual coach training
course is organized

The Professional Coaching Course (PCC) is designed in collaboration with one of the leading coaching schools in the United States – New Ventures West (NVW). The course is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) accredited course and is being run in partnership by the Centre for Coaching, (based at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business) and NVW.

The year-long PCC is part of the 18-month programme offered by the Centre for Coaching that is made up of two courses targeted at different levels. The six-month course (CfD) can be completed separately and offers a stand-alone qualification; however, CfD and PCC are designed to work together as a unit over an 18-month period with ‘soak in’ time between each programme to allow information to be absorbed and practiced.

It is important to emphasize that using our state-of-the art, groundbreaking, virtual face-to-face teaching approach means that we are able to give this PCC programme the same depth, experience and level of engagement that we do with our physical face-to-face programmes.

Prerequisite: before being accepted into the Professional Coaching Course (PCC), applicants must have completed the Coaching for Development (CfD) course

Professional Coaching Course (PCC)

1 YEAR – 4 MODULES – 16 CONTACT DAYS

Under the auspices of our learning partner, New Venture West, the PCC is accredited by the ICF (International Coaching Federation) as a Level 2 course for 196 hours of coach-specific training.

PCC Module 1

Get in shape to Coach: Way of Being

PCC Module 2

Theory & Methodology

PCC Module 3

Practice: Guest Clients & Coaches

PCC Module 4

Certification & Completion

CfD + PCC equates to 286 hours of coach specific training. This fulfils the ICF coach training hour requirements for MCC (Master Certified Coach)

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What to expect when you enroll in the Professional Coaching Course

When you enroll in the PCC, you join a group of professionals who study, learn, and coach together for an entire year and quickly form a supportive learning community. The curriculum blends a rigorous course of study with hands-on practice and attention to participant’s own individual development.

The course is structured in the
following way

  • The PCC is organized around four virtual face-to-face modules that run from Tuesday to Friday.
  • Days run from 10h00 to 17h30 SAST, with a 1½ hour afternoon break to eat lunch, do a short assignment, walk, and relax.
  • In between modules, you read 10 books from the “Coaches’ Bookshelf”, complete written assignments, coach clients, and undertake your own individual development programme, as you will also receive 1-on-1 coaching during and between modules.
  • As you engage in these activities, you draw upon the support of small learning groups called Pods. Each Pod works together and is assigned a Pod Mentor. You also receive periodic coaching from the course faculty.

Prerequisite: before being accepted into the Professional Coaching Course (PCC), applicants must have completed the Coaching for Development (CfD) course

CFC Course Overview

Course Overview – all days run on Zoom

  • Module 1 focuses on building a strong and supportive community and cultivating your capacity to be present, mindful, and a skilled observer of yourself and others. The course leaders coach you (and others) and design an individual development programme for you. This begins your initiation into the “two tracks” of Integral Coaching: the simultaneous focus on your clients’ development and your own development.
  • Between Modules 1 and 2, by engaging in your own personal development programme, you begin to develop the body of a coach and the capacity to witness how distinctions and practices can impact someone’s life (in this case, your own).
  • In Module 2 we turn our attention to deepening the three core integral coaching models and their use with clients. We discuss the stages of a coaching relationship, the elements of a coaching programme, and how to design and conduct an Integral Coaching programme.
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Three important features

  • Proudly South African. We are proud to be the first coach training organization in Africa to have been founded at the University of Cape Town in 2002 and one of the longer-standing coach training institutions worldwide, not only on the African continent. We have spent years understanding the complexities of our diverse nation, continent, and planet and how to weave this into how we teach and coach. We raise this as a continuing dialogue within the faculty and student body, encouraging profound openness and conversation. Over the years, we have been privileged to work with an enormously diverse array of students and graduate coaches, any of whom now grace our programmes as highly skilled faculty. Many international applicants come to us precisely because they seek a learning environment that is rich with diversity. Now, more than ever, this is being recognized across the globe as a truly critical aspect of any studies involving personal development and interacting with other human beings.
  • Individual development programmes. The programme you receive from the course leader in Module 1 sets a tone and structure for the year. Being coached about something that matters to you provides a visceral experience of Integral Coaching from the coachee’s perspective. In addition, the practices you receive and undertake help you become the person who can create such relationships with others; so this is not only personally powerful, it is also efficient in enhancing your ability to coach.
  • “Coaches Bookshelf” and written assignments. You receive a “Coaches Bookshelf” of ten books that span widely across different disciplines and knowledge bases. One month, you may read a book about the physiology of breathing; the next, a work of twentieth-century philosophy; and the next, a guide to being present and mindful amid life’s turbulence. The intent is to spark your curiosity by delving into subjects that are essential to coaching and outside your “normal” range of learning. In addition, you complete written assignments such as the application of the core models to a coaching case, essays about how everyday life informs your coaching, reflections on your readings, and the development of a vision of your future. These assignments further help you embody the “two tracks” of Integral Coaching.

Who will support you?

Learning to coach is not something we can do alone. Throughout the year, you receive support from the staff at the Centre for Coaching, the PCC faculty and your classmates in several ways:

  1. You have two in-class, and two private virtual 1-on-1 coaching sessions with the course leaders.
  2. You work with a Mentor Coach who supports you in your personal and professional development through periodic private 1-on-1 virtual coaching sessions.
  3. You receive written feedback from your Mentor Coach who listens to recordings of different coaching sessions that you conduct with your clients and who gives you insight as to how closely your own live coaching methodology is aligned with the integral coaching principles that you have been taught
  4. You participate with your learning pod. This pod meets together virtually on a regular basis in between modules. The focus of pod meetings evolves during the year from students’ personal development to the models and practices of Integral Coaching to students’ experiences coaching clients. Each pod is assigned a Pod Guide, who is a PCC-certified coach and who is there to support you and the pod.
  5. Individual participants often pair up with each other informally around particular issues of mutual interest. We encourage you to ‘buddy-up’ with a self-chosen partner. Sometimes this is done face-to-face, although these days it is primarily done virtually..

Tuition fees 2025

These fees include all Live-Virtual modules, books, materials, pod meetings, coaching sessions, and certification.

ZAR 139,000 ex VAT ( ZAR 159,850 incl VAT)

  • A ZAR 19,000 non-refundable, non-transferable deposit is required no later than six weeks before the start of the course. If your application is not accepted, your deposit will be returned. If it is accepted and you cancel your booking, we will retain your deposit. Course fees are payable before the start of the course. Payment plans are available. Please email info@centreforcoaching.co.za for further details.

Course Leaders

CFC Janine Ahlers

Janine Ahlers

Academic Director BA PDM (HR)
LRSM MBA MCC

Janine Ahlers is a Master Certified Integral Coach and Director of the Centre for Coaching Consulting (Europe, Africa and Middle East), a global leadership consultancy and executive coaching practice, as well as Director of the Centre for Coaching, a centre for excellence situated at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB). She also holds the position of Senior Lecturer at UCT, where she lectures in Coaching and Leadership Development to MBA and Executive Education students. She has delivered and published research papers, as well as having published book chapters and articles on the topic of coaching in leadership development.

Nothemba Mxenge

Nothemba Mxenge is a PCC certified Integral Coach® through USA-based New Ventures West and the UCT Graduate School of Business’ Centre for Coaching. She is also a qualified Results Coaching System Coach, a Multiple Brain Integration Coach and a certified Enneagram Practitioner.

Nothemba has over 2,500 hours of coaching various corporate clients, from directors and senior executives to first-line managers. Her corporate coaching has focused on leadership development, culture transformation, managing team dynamics and conflict, managing diversity, etc.

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Course Dates

You are required to be present for all days of all modules to certify. Please make sure you are available for the full days and evenings for each of these modules, as there are assignments to do within each module. The work is intensive and requires your full attention. We use the Zoom platform, and you will need a reliable and high-speed internet connection.

MODULE 1

4 Days:
Tuesday 21 – Friday 24 October 2025

MODULE 2

4 Days:
Tuesday 10 – Friday 13 February 2026

MODULE 3

4 Days:
Tuesday 09 – Friday 12 June 2026

MODULE 4

4 Days:
Tuesday 27 – Friday 30 October 2026

CFC Coaching for Development Application Process

Application Process

If you are interested in the Professional Coaching Course, please complete the enquiry form below or email us at info@centreforcoaching.co.za for more information. You can contact our Programme Manager, Ray Adams at +27 (0) 21 007 0564