Team Coaching

This course is open to home fee paying students only

Course overview

Team coaching is becoming more important for today’s fast-paced business environment. Businesses face challenging times and recognise the impact and benefits that team coaching can have on their workplace, staff and business success.

Benefits of team coaching include:

Increased trust in the workplace
Better employee retention
Higher productivity levels
Greater employee satisfaction
Sustained relationships
Employee engagement

Our Team Coaching programme prepares you for supporting innovation and purposeful change in teams and organisations through a carefully structured programme of practice and applied theory.

By working with a team coach, team members learn to communicate more effectively with each other, which leads to collaboration, less stress and co-creating efficient work processes. This can be especially important in today's business environment, as team coaching helps teams navigate the complexities of the modern workplace and achieve outstanding results.

To find out more about this innovative programme, please contact the Programme Directors, Dr Uwe Napiersky and Dr Elinor Vettraino.

Email Dr Uwe Napiersky Email Dr Elinor Vettraino

“I certainly have found that organisations make an assumption that people know how to work together in teams, and actually that's often not the case. They tend to have team building activities, they maybe do team away day type experiences to try and facilitate some kind of commonality, but actually these don't address the day-to-day challenges and benefits of working in teams the way a coaching process can."

Hear more

Dr Elinor Vettraino

PGCert Team Coaching

Programme Director

Why Team Coaching at Aston University?

Enhanced personal development

Develop team coaching approaches that can be applied across different professional settings

Recognised for quality

Aston Business School is proud to be among 1% of business schools worldwide with triple accreditation

Excellent prospects

Aston University was named runner-up in the University of the Year for Graduate Employment Award (Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 2024)

Make an impact

Learn and practise key coaching tools, techniques and approaches to generate positive impact on organisational performance

Real-world experiences

Grounded in evidence-based practice and real-world application

Ability to enable, inspire and empower

Hear from MSc Business and Enterprise Programme Director and development coach Aimee Postle and the importance of personal and professional development through the power of team coaching.

We're serious about employability

As a postgraduate student, you will have access to dedicated careers guidance with specialist support from our experienced team of careers consultants

Gain a competitive edge

As well as opening doors, an Aston University postgraduate degree builds on your experience, develops your skills and gives you a competitive edge in a crowded job market.

Course description

PGCert Team Coaching

Our Postgraduate Certificate in Team Coaching offers you the opportunity to learn and practice key coaching tools, techniques and approaches making use of real-world situations.

What we will provide
First-class coaching in the UK’s second-largest city, delivered by industry-experienced coaches who will engage and inspire you.

We are also an Adobe Creative Campus meaning you will have access to top-notch software licenses, including Adobe and Solidworks, commonly used in industry.

What you will provide
A passion for coaching and development and a willingness to engage and interact with the other team members. Online learning activities and independent and self-directed learning is a key aspect of the course.

What skills we teach
We will develop your confidence and skills as a team coach and deepen your understanding and ability to intervene with teams and groups. Using a range of critical thinking and creative tools, you will learn how to support your clients in teams to achieve their goals and optimise performance.

Career prospects
The Postgraduate Certificate in Team Coaching will enable you to improve your credibility as a practicing team coach.

How you will learn

The Postgraduate Certificate in Team Coaching runs over nine months using a blended approach of on-campus face-to-face learning and online activity. We make use of real-world case studies and client challenges, as well as creative and practical tools, techniques and strategies.

There will be approximately eleven days of on-campus learning spread over the duration of the programme. You will be expected to engage in a mixture of workshops, group learning and independent study, as well as appropriate team coaching practice outside of the programme delivery.

You will maintain a coaching log which will support your assessment of practice. This will include written critically reflective pieces and practical observations of your team coaching practice.

All teaching and learning materials are hosted on Blackboard – a virtual teaching environment - as you will be taught via a blended learning approach combining individual and directed learning with scheduled seminars and workshops to complement your learning.

What you will learn

In the first term, you will focus on building the foundations of team coaching. You will concentrate on the importance of psychological safety, facilitating growth and innovation, and managing team dynamics.

In the second term, you will continue your journey with an exploration of the tasks and mindset required to be a team coach. Introducing playfulness and creativity along with design thinking, you will develop your entrepreneurial capacity as a team coach.

The final term focuses on the real-world development of a team coaching project born out of your own context. This will support the development of your professional practice and reflective mastery.

Course objectives

Develops your foundational knowledge of and competence in team coaching to support understanding and professional practice.
Develops your capacity to be flexible and agile as you develop your team coaching mindset.
Develops your ability to critically apply design thinking and creativity principles to the creation of team coaching processes and practice.
Develops your personal and professional self-awareness and encourages critical reflective and reflexive practice.

Modules

Modules and learning outcomes

During this nine month programme you will study the following core modules:

Team Coaching: Essentials (15 credits)

This module aims to provide you with essential key theoretical frameworks of team coaching. This includes a theoretical and practical understanding of key components and pillars, to critically evaluate them and to know the application challenges.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Critically analyse different approaches, concepts and fundamental principles that can be used in the arena of team coaching.
Interrogate and understand different team coaching approaches, concepts and fundamental principles.
Diagnose and develop strategies for resolving real world team coaching challenges

Team Coaching: Tasks and Mindset (15 credits)

This module aims to critically explore the impact of mindset, playfulness and creativity in team coaching, to identify inspirational approaches that can be taken in your practice. You will engage in a critical self-exploration of your growth mindset, and ability to flex, adapt and pivot to emerging learning situations in your team coaching practice, building on creativity and playfulness in the coaching process. In this module you are preparing yourself for team coaching practice.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Develop a critical understanding of the theory of growth mindset development and its relevance for team coaching practice in a range of professional contexts.
Advance a critical understanding of reflexively working with team coaching processes and underpinning theory.
Demonstrate critically reflective use of creative and playful processes to support team coaching practice.

Team Coaching: Professional Practice (30 credits)

This module aims to critically apply the learning from previous modules Team Coaching Essentials and Team Coaching: Tasks and Mindset, in the development of your practice. You will hone your skills and capacities for team coaching through engaging in reflexive agile learning processes as a team coach, putting into practice what you have learned.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Critically reflect on your own team coaching practice.
Demonstrate appropriate design architecture for team coaching experiences.
Advance a critical application of real-world team coaching.

Each credit of study is equivalent to ten learning hours (e.g., 15 credits reflect 150 hours of learning). The learning hours may include but are not limited to lecturers, seminars, tutorials, practical activities, online activity, reading, other independent study and reflecting on assignment feedback.

Programme outcomes

On successful completion of both the taught and dissertation stage, you will be able to:

Demonstrate the ability to systematically analyse the different approaches, concepts and fundamental principles of team coaching.
Critically apply the foundational knowledge of models and theories of team coaching practice.
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the concept of a growth mindset and how it applies to a team coaching mindset.
Interrogate creative and playful processes and their importance in supporting team coaching practice.
Demonstrate the ability to justify the design choices made in team coaching processes, mapped to group and team client and stakeholder needs.
Engage in critical application of design thinking and principles in the creation of team coaching processes.
Interrogate and apply different theoretical approaches to reflective and reflexive practice, developing self-awareness and self-efficacy as a team coach.

Entry requirements

One of the following:

You will need to evidence some coaching experience, with groups, teams or with individuals and provide a critical reflection on this. You will also need to evidence access to appropriate potential teams that you can develop your practice with throughout the programme.
A masters or bachelors degree would be an advantage, although evidence of at least three to five years' work experience would be regarded as equivalent.

Additional requirements

You will also need to attend an interview as part of your application process.

Please note: we do offer the possibility of Advanced Prior Learning (APL) on this programme to those who have previously completed the Team Mastery training offered by Akatemia. If this applies to you, please do mention this within your application or contact the PG Admissions team below as this will have an impact on the modules you will be required to study and the programme fee.

Speak to our Admissions Team

If you have any questions about the application process please get in touch with our postgraduate admissions team:

Email: pgadmissions@aston.ac.uk

Call: 0121 204 3200 (Please note this line is open Monday-Friday between 09:30-16:30)

Read our guide to applying

Course fees

UK students (2024/25)

Annual tuition fees:

£6,500

More information on fees

For individuals who have Advanced Prior Learning (APL) from completing the Team Mastery training offered by Akatemia, annual tuition fees will be £3,250. This is for completing the Team Coaching: Professional Practice module.

Tuition fees for students are reviewed annually and may increase in subsequent years in line with inflation linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) to take account of the University’s increased costs of delivering the Programme. Any such increase shall always be in accordance with the law.

Fees and funding

Assessment

The programme will be assessed through a combination of written and oral examinations, class tests, individual and group coursework, projects, presentations and practical assessments. You will also maintain a coaching log which will support your assessment of practice.

Career prospects

The Postgraduate Certificate in Team Coaching will enable you to improve your credibility as a practicing team coach.

Our graduates achieve amazing things all over the world – whether it’s setting up their own businesses, landing jobs with high profile organisations, or making real differences within their communities.

Hear from our graduates

Be part of our community

Once you have joined us at Aston University, you’ll always be part of our community, even beyond graduation.

Alumni services

Frequently asked questions

What is team coaching?

We define team coaching as follows: Team coaching helps teams work together, with others and within their wider environment, to create lasting change by developing safe and trusting relationships, better ways of working and new thinking, so that they maximise their collective potential, purpose and performance goals.

Team coaching is coaching a team. The team as a unit is coached, just as a top sports team as a whole is coached and accompanied on the journey to success. The aim is to get the individuals to work well, whether they are together in the same space or apart, on individual tasks and projects.

Discover more about the PGCert Team Coaching programme by listening to this episode of the Aston means business podcast:

Why should I study my postgraduate degree at Aston University?

There are lots of benefits of studying a postgraduate degree at Aston University.

Watch this video from MBA student, Monique, who talks about just a few of them:

Is Birmingham a good place to study?

Our campus is based in the centre of Birmingham, the youngest major city in Europe and a great place to live, work and study.

Great music and entertainment with a vibrant nightlife. Bars, clubs, pubs, live music, festivals, concerts. Whatever your tastes, there's something here for everyone.
Fantastic food. Birmingham's diverse community means you can try anything from the famous Balti triangle, the Chinese Quarter, high street chains, halal and vegan food, and Michelin-star dining.
World-class shopping. The Bullring and Grand Central is a shopper's paradise. From the world's biggest Primark to luxury brands at the Mailbox.
Arts and culture. Museums, galleries, theatres, concerts and Birmingham's art collection is as wide as it is impressive - not to be missed.
Green, open spaces. One of the greenest cities in Europe, Birmingham has hundreds of publicly accessible parks and green spaces across the city.
Sporting action. Birmingham has some of the most exciting venues for watching or participating in sport in the UK.

Discover Birmingham