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Choosing an NLP training course - 7 key questions to ask
Choosing an NLP training provider can be a challenging experience. It is also a very important choice since you are likely to only attend one NLP Practitioner course in your life!
As an NLP training provider Pegasus NLP does not claim to be un-biased however, rather than join in the 'we are the best' clamour, we have assembled some information to help you make the right choice for yourself.
The Professional Guild of NLP
Here in the UK there is a huge selection of NLP course providers so, as a first step, you may wish to narrow your search by checking out the list of over 20+ Member Organisations of the Professional Guild of NLP.
The Professional Guild of NLP is run by its member organisations, is non-commercial and is not for profit. Member organisations are committed to providing the thorough full-length, full-syllabus 120 hour Practitioner Certification training programme.
Seven key questions
Since taking part in an NLP Certification course is a serious investment of your time, your money and your expectations we recommend you consider the following questions when making your choice:
1. How long are the workshops?
The original requirement for Practitioner Certification Programme was 18-20 days or 120 hours of attendance at a workshop and with a Certified NLP Trainer in attendance. It is also possible to 'do' NLP in a much shorter time by attending an 'accelerated' or 'fast track' training.
2. How many other participants?
This is an important question if your outcome is NLP skill. In some trainings you can be part of a group of anywhere from 50 to 100's. Usually such trainings get around the need for hands-on coaching and feedback by having 'training assistants'. However such assistants will frequently be previous participants (rather than skilled trainers) who are coming back from free training in return for marshalling the crowd. Here at Pegasus we occasionally have training assistants but these are at least Certified Master Practitioners or graduates of our NLP Trainer Training programme and, since our groups are usually around 16-18 you always have access to the course trainer. (See why Pegasus NLP favours small learning groups.)
3. How trained are the trainers?
Just a few years ago becoming a Certified NLP Trainer required that, in addition to being certified as a Practitioner and Master Practitioner and Trainer, you also did an 'apprenticeship' through being an active observer at a number of Practitioner and Master Practitioner Programmes.
This ensured that your own trainings had depth and quality. We believe that an effective trainer will have many times more knowledge, experience and material than they actually have time to teach - this ensures that their work has depth and that they can draw upon practical experience in answering questions from participants.
Nowadays, through some organisations, it is possible to become a "Certified NLP Trainer" in a matter of weeks. For this reason we recommend that you be quite thorough in assessing who you will choose as your training provider. Ask questions about the course trainer(s) such as:
- How long have they been been actively involved in NLP?
- When did they receive certification as a Practitioner and as a Master Practitioner of NLP?
- Who did they do they Practitioner Training with and was it a 120 hour full-syllabus programme?
- When did they receive certification as a Trainer of NLP?
If they have gone from Practitioner to Trainer in anything less than a couple of years they are likely to be 'training from the book' and what you will learn is unlikely to have the breadth and depth that comes from experience and familiarity with the material.
4. What is the background of the trainers?
Have they had a life other than NLP? Are they experienced in the fields in which you are interested?
5. How many trainers?
Attending an NLP Practitioner training which is presented by just one person will not provide you with the breadth and depth of NLP experience, insight and skill that you will get from having two or more trainers on course. It's also worth bearing in mind that one-trainer NLP Certification courses are often run by new and inexperienced NLP trainers.
6. What is the organisation's attitude towards their participants?
You can get a pretty good idea about this by how they respond to the other questions on this list - while also considering ...
- Do they believe in empowering or do they just teach?
- Do they take a genuine interest in you as an individual or are you just another 'customer'?
- Do they get a little impatient or uncomfortable when you ask them probing questions such as the ones on this page?
- How do they respond to the 'money-back guarantee' question...?
7. Money-Back Guarantee?
NLP Trainings are not cheap - they represent a quite significant investment of your time and of money.
It is not a nice experience to arrive at a training that you have carefully selected, and for which you may have pre-paid in order to receive an 'early bird' discount, to discover that it is not what you expected or that the trainer is not treating you as they had promised.
Training providers who believe in the quality of their courses will guarantee them and allow you a day or two to gauge whether or not you have selected the right training for you.
For example, since the late 90s Pegasus NLP has operated a simple, no-quibble guarantee with our 5-day NLP Core Skills: if you are not convinced by the close of Day 2 that this is the course for you we will give you a full refund.
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