Facilitation Certification

Many people are finding that they want an official credential to practice process facilitation either within their own organization or as an independent facilitator. At the same time, many clients want to be sure they are calling on a credentialed neutral outside person to help their group think well together towards goal setting or problem solving. Professional certification provides you an excellent opportunity to develop your skills and be assessed in a supportive environment. We offer facilitator mentoring to help you get ready for certification and/or help you become a more skillful facilitator.

Barbara MacKay was overseeing the internationally recognized Facilitator Certification program with the International Association of Facilitators from 2003 to 2007 and has assessed dozens of candidates from around the world, most recently in Singapore August 2014. The certification process lets you know which skills and competencies you are able to demonstrate and which ones may need some more work. There are now over 600 Certified Professional Facilitators (CPFs) in 35 countries and six continents.

Want to become a certified professional facilitator?

Here’s what you can do to start:

  • Get a sense of your current facilitation skills by completing your own Facilitator Certification Self Assessment based on the competencies developed by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF).
  • Learn more about the process of becoming a certified professional facilitator.
  • Consider mentoring with a Certified Professional Facilitator to get the skills you’ll need.

The Process

The process for international certification is intended to be a supportive opportunity to learn from your colleagues and demonstrate your competencies by writing, telling and showing them to a neutral group of four assessors. The process follows these steps as follows:

  • Download the process certification overview documents from IAF.
  • Apply to attend a certification event in a location most convenient to you (there are about 6-8 per year around the world)
  • Submit a résumé, a brief description of seven facilitated events you have led in the last three years, a description of related training and a detailed overview of one facilitated event (½ day to several days) you have undertaken in the last three years
  • Submit the initial fee ($250 US)
  • Wait for assessors to review your documents to see if you have been accepted to continue
  • If you are accepted, conduct a telephone or internet interview with one of your assessors who poses as your “mock client”
  • Collect references from the clients of your seven events and certificates of related training you have taken
  • Attend the one day in-person event you have chosen. Expect to be there from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.
  • On this day, you will be given a 30 minute interview by two assessors; expected to conduct a 30 minute demonstration workshop with your candidate peers, participate in a second follow-up interview after your demonstration and participate in a large group review of the day
  • At the end of the day, you will be told by your two main assessors whether you showed enough evidence of the competencies or not (i.e., Pass or Defer)
  • Whether you pass or are deferred, you will receive a thorough positively written feedback report on how you did on each competency area. If you pass, you receive a certificate of pass. If you are deferred, we invite you back at a small fee to try again at an event of your choosing within three years, subject to space availability.

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Ready to talk about certification?

Contact us about any questions you may have about starting your journey towards certification!