How do you choose which training company to do your NLP Training with?
There are hundreds of training organisations offering “certificated” NLP courses, from short 7 day Practitioner to full 120 hours face to face training, all require an investment of time and money, so how do you choose where to spend your money and time, and be sure of getting the best value and level of training?
Does an organisation that has a well known NLP author or NLP “celebrity” necessarily provide what you want?
Does an organisation with a less well known trainer necessarily provide what you want?
Do you want to attend courses that have a large number of participants or smaller number of participants where personal attention from the lead trainer(s) is more available?
The quality of the course, training and subsequent skill and knowledge level of successful students doesn’t always depend on price, or whether the course is run by a known individual. A course should be judged on its quality of content, delivery and ultimately student assessment methods.
Currently most NLP training organisations either belong to self regulating bodies or none at all for the regulation of their training. The Professional Guild of NLP was set-up, to set a minimum standard of training in NLP by its member organisations. This followed discussions and some disagreement within the NLP community as to what constitutes a valid “practitioner” training.
One of the Guilds standards is that any NLP training should be a minimum of 120 hours face to face training which means that companies offering 7 day intensive trainings cannot have their courses validated by The Professional Guild. Other regulating bodies will accept graduates from courses that have had less face to face training, but may have completed some “home study” programme in conjunction with the 7 day “intensive” training.
However, if all the NLP governing bodies are self regulating and set their own standards for training and practitioner registration, how will this help you decide on selecting the right course for you?
In light of the above question, some training companies have sort some form of external validation for their courses, through nationally recognised academic regulatory bodies. These bodies are not affiliated with any NLP organisation and are often recognised by UK government and examination authorities as regulators of training and courses across a wide range of educational subjects, usually in higher education.
This means that individuals, organisations and employers can make a judgment about the level and quality of a NLP course based on a nationally recognised and accepted framework.
To my knowledge Talisman Training Ltd is the only NLP training organisation that has sought and obtained the equivalent, level 4 award (Certificate in Higher Education) within the National Qualifications Framework for their NLP Practitioner Course. The award means that their syllabus, training and assessment is independently validated by an NCFE assessor and successful candidates will receive a certificate at level 4 from NCFE, together with their NLP Practitioner Certificate, recognised by The Professional Guild of NLP and other NLP regulatory bodies. This also means that Talisman Training Ltd is an approved NCFE Training Centre and has met all the necessary requirements to be approved.
I have no doubt that other training organisations will follow the example of Talisman Training Ltd as students and organisations rightly demand even higher standards from their NLP training providers.
