What is an approved qualification?

An approved qualification is awarded to an awarding organisation that takes responsibility for the design, assessment and award of the qualification according to BACP standards and requirements. The qualification may be delivered at several different training centres approved by the awarding organisation.

Why approval? What are the benefits?

Benefits for awarding organisations include:

  • a more direct entry onto the BACP Register for practitioners as the Certificate of Proficiency is embedded into the course
  • external verification that the organisation meets stringent training, practice and quality assurance criteria
  • the organisation maintains its own autonomy and brand
  • giving a recognised quality mark for prospective applicants and staff recruitment
  • free listing on our website which is used by potential students to search for courses
  • use of the BACP approved qualification logo for advertising, publicity and information materials
  • ongoing partnership with BACP Professional Standards to ensure the qualification continues to reflect highest practice standards

What’s the difference between an approved qualification and an accredited course?

An approved qualification applies to the awarding organisation rather than to a specific training centre or cohort. Awarding organisations are responsible for ensuring standards are being met at each centre, while with course accreditation BACP is responsible for ensuring that course standards meet the course accreditation criteria.

What's the difference between an approved qualification and other qualifications?

BACP approved qualifications meet BACP professional standards, while upholding the awarding organisation's standards and requirements. To meet BACP standards, the qualification needs to embed the BACP Ethical Framework and content, such as learning about how to assess for client suitability and the Certificate of Proficiency. The counselling skills approved qualification shows that an awarding organisation has mapped its qualification onto our counselling skills competences.

How does the approval scheme fit with SCoPEd?

The approved qualification scheme has been developed independently of the SCoPEd project, but if SCoPEd is implemented in the future, we’ll need to ensure the approval scheme is mapped onto the framework.

What's the route to registration?

This applies to the practitioner qualification. Once a student has been awarded the qualification, they’ll be able to sign our terms and conditions for registered membership and join the Register straight away. This skips the individual membership category and the waiting time to take the Certificate of Proficiency. This is because all students on the course will be BACP student members and will have taken and passed the Certificate of Proficiency as part of the qualification.

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