Reply To: Standards of Training

[Heidi Heron]

(Reply from Hugh Comerford)

Thanks Lisa and Hugh and all,

I run 20 day practitioner courses in Japan. Most NLP courses in Japan run for 10 days. I have seen an interesting discussion on a Japanese language forum which concluded that longer is definitely better but that it doesn’t suit the shorter vacation and free time of people in Japan.
Like Hugh, I agree that 20 days is too short to really raise people to the standard that I would like to achieve in order to ‘certify’ them. To raise standards further, I’ve started giving a lot more assignments between modules. I also teach at a university (not NLP) and we of course give regular homework, outside reading, and preview work. It seems odd to me that there is so little homework and preview provided as part of NLP courses. Another area that is clearly under-utilized is practice groups. For some modules, I have compulsory out-of-class practical assignments (e.g. practice of perceptual positions etc.) which students can do in person or over Skype etc. One reason that I am able to do out-of-class assignments is that I generally run the practitioner over a year with one module per month. Clearly, there is less scope for outside work if the course is run on 20 consecutive days.

To achieve deeper and higher standard learning, I consider it fairly necessary to spread courses over longer periods of time, and to increase out-of-class practice and study.

All the best,
Brian Cullen