Sunday, May 27, 2007

Proof of the power of e-coaching

The Youth Zone program concluded in 2003 that more attention was needed for support to junior experts in development. PSO, VSO and ICCO started a pilot project of e-coaching for juniors which took place between september and march 2007. There were 10 participants, 3 coaches and every coachee had 4 hours coaching time over a period of 6-8 weeks. The coachee and coach choose their own means of communication. Skype and e-mail were most popular, though a few used instant message (either MSN or the skype chat function). Karen Bakhuizen evaluated this e-coaching experiment and presented the very positive results on Friday May 25 at a meeting of the e-collaboration group hosted by the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam.

Chris van de Sanden interviewed Karen about the most surprising outcomes of the evaluation and the future of e-coaching. You can click on the video below to hear Karen's ideas.






Karen expresses her surprise with the fact that e-coaching was so much welcomed by the juniors, this was beyond her expectations. They have needs for specific support like reflecting on their role as junior expert and functioning in an intercultural environment. Nobody in their environment could meet these needs. The coaches at the distance were able to provide this support. Karen foresees a big future for e-coaching since it is a cheap and effective instrument, so it might be a good instrument for senior experts too to support them in their personal and professional development.

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