How do I become an agile coach? What training is available and what is required?

Agile Coach is a further education profession. This means that you must have completed a first professional career: a successfully completed apprenticeship or a university degree as well as several years of professional experience.

Training and qualifications:

There are two levels of Agile Coach training:

1. the introduction usually takes place within the framework of Scrum courses(for example ScrumMaster, Scrum Product Owner, Scrum Developer or Scrum Professional). The Scrum courses are based on the specifications and quality standards of international certification organizations, such as

- Scrum Alliance
- Scrum Association
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- ICAgile

There are the following certifications with specialization in Agile Coaching: Agile Coach, Agile Practitioner, Agile Expert or Agile Master. Their structure is not federally regulated and they conclude with a school's own certificate.

Some school certificates from providers are recognized by national or international associations such as the Scrum Alliance. Find out directly from the school whether and which associations recognize their certificates or what is additionally required for their recognition. Also find out whether the association certificate requires recertification after a certain period of time.

Certifications can usually be credited to subsequent further training courses. Please contact the respective provider directly.

2. further training to become an Agile Coach is also available at the:

- Higher vocational training as a postgraduate course HF
- University as CAS module

There are currently (March 2021) no federally recognized courses for Agile Coaches.

Requirements:

  • No specific industry or professional knowledge is required.
  • Your ownProfessional experienceis probably the most crucial point on the path to becoming an agile coach. After all, in your work as an agile coach, you have to accompany companies and teams on their individual path through the agile transformation. It is therefore a great advantage if you have already been able to gain insight into many different company structures during your professional career. Most providers therefore require several years of professional experience (at least 3 years), for example in the position of change manager, project manager, project leader, consultant, coach, entrepreneur, executive, HR manager or in organizational development.
  • Some providers require a specialist HF, Bachelor's or Master's degree for qualifications at higher vocational training or university level.
  • The usual admission procedure is "sur dossier", i.e. based on an individual assessment of your professional background.

Personal requirements:

The following skills and characteristics are advantageous for working as an Agile Coach:

  • Endurance
  • Load capacity
  • Frustration tolerance
  • Openness
  • Respect
  • Courage
  • Ability to concentrate and goal orientation
  • Analytical and structured thinking
  • Empathy: observing and listening
  • Communication, conflict and cooperation skills

Provider of Agile Coaching/Agile Coach training courses