Master Coach

Executive coaching is moving up in the world. Now you can get a master's in it.

The BeamPines/Middlesex University master's program in executive coaching is a partnership between BeamPines, a human resource consulting firm with offices in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University, an international university based in London.

The year-long program requires candidates to conduct research, participate in action learning in small groups, and be supervised by a master coach. Candidates must be sponsored by their companies. "People need to have five to 10 years of experience in their companies," says Joshua Ehrlich, dean of the program.

Ehrlich says his firm began working on this program because of the state of training in executive coaching. "There's a lot of garbage out there that passes for training [for] coaches," he says.

During their course of study, candidates put what they're learning into practice at their companies. The curriculum includes instruction in coaching frameworks, psychology, personality theory and psychotherapy, as well as information about networks, organizational culture, assessments, strategic planning and skill building.

The first two students will graduate from the program in March, and six more are enrolled for next year, Ehrlich says. "Because it's so time-intensive for the coach supervisors, they can only handle about two students at a time," he says. "We don't want to get bigger than we can handle, but we have a lot of demand, so we're pulling in more people."

To learn more about the program, go to www.graduatecoach.com.