EQA Testimonials
Interview with Hélène Aubry Denton
Director and Founder of IDC, Switzerland
I recently had the privileged of interviewing Hélène Aubry Denton, Director and Founder of IDC, the first coaching training provider in Switzerland to successfully complete the EQA accreditation process. IDC is a pioneer and leader in the French speaking part of Switzerland, providing professional coaching training at a variety of levels from foundation to Master Coach as well as Executive Coaching.
Hélène assessed the quality of the support she received from our EMCC Global Accreditation Organisation, specifically from Shelley Crawford, as being worthy of « 10 out of 10 ». Her advice to any training provider wanting to start EQA would be to actively seek expert support and advice throughout the process. She also agreed additional help through webinars would be an advantage. She described the process as positive, meaningful and worthwhile. However, she did mention the fact that filling in the various accreditation documents could be complex and time consuming and some questions would benefit from clarification and simplification. She liked the fact that the process was not only thought provoking but also allowed them to gain invaluable insights into their practice and how they were delivering their training. She emphasised that the investment in time was considerable and this is something we should probably look into.
What attracted Hélène to EQA was the European dimension of EMCC. She felt that the approach was closer to the European way of thinking. In terms of the requirements for training delivery, she appreciated the emphasis on the quality of questioning and continual improvement. Nevertheless, she believes the ICF and EMCC approaches are complementary, and being accredited by both is a clear advantage for her organisation.
Given that coaching is a relatively new profession in Europe, Hélène underlined the importance of reflecting on professional competencies and practices to increase credibility, emphasising the specificities of coaching as a profession, distinct from mentoring and consulting. She commented on the fact that there was some overlapping between coaching and mentoring competencies in the EMCC EQA process, which was not the case in ICF.
Last but not least, Hélène is very positive about the future of our profession in Switzerland, primarily in Executive Coaching where demand is growing for alternative leadership and communication approaches aimed at talent retention.
Martin Bless
President EMCC Switzerland
January 2020