Mentor coaching is entering a new era.
BAM was built by the coaches who saw it coming.
Mentor coaching is entering a new era.
BAM was built by the coaches who saw it coming.
The International Coaching Federation’s Mentor Coaching Specialization (MCS) is not just a new requirement. It is a turning point for the mentor coaching profession.
We offer a rigorous, relational path to MCS readiness for coaches who want more than compliance — coaches who understand that the future of coaching depends on the quality of those who mentor the next generation.
The Moment We're In
The Moment We're In
If you are a mentor coach, your professional landscape changed significantly in 2026.
Beginning January 1, 2027, the International Coaching Federation will require all mentor coaches to hold the Mentor Coaching Specialization (MCS) for their hours to count toward a mentee's credential. Credential level alone is no longer sufficient. Without this specialization, your mentor coaching hours don't qualify.
We know how disorienting this has been for many experienced mentor coaches — people who have given years of careful, quality service to this profession.
We also knew this moment was coming. For years, we watched the same issue surface across the profession: talented coaches receiving inconsistent mentor feedback, mentor coaches stepping into the role without real preparation, and a developing profession relying too heavily on credentials alone to prove readiness.
The Become A Mentor Coach program was not built in response to a mandate, but rather in response to a pattern. The need for rigor, consistency, and genuine education in mentor coaching has been visible for years.
The good news? Our program already meets and exceeds the MCS education requirements for the Credit for Prior Learning Pathway.
The question isn't whether to get your MCS. It's whether you want to get there through the minimum — or through something that actually makes you a better mentor coach.
Why This Matters
The coaching profession has never been more visible, more regulated, and more globally recognized.
On the other hand, the rise of AI, automation, scalable content, and low-touch education is making it easier than ever to imitate coaching language without embodying coaching presence.
That is why mentor coaching matters now.
Mentor coaches do more than help coaches pass an evaluation. They are responsible for protecting the human standard of the profession. They help coaches hear the difference between technique and presence, performance and partnership, advice and evoked awareness, compliance and mastery.
This is the work we've been standing for long before the current mandate.
Meet the Brilliance Behind BAM.
44 years of combined mentor coaching practice.
One shared conviction: this profession deserves better.
Lerae Gidyk
Lerae Gidyk has been coaching since 1999 — before mentor coaching was regulated, before the profession had formalized standards for the role, before coaching became the global industry it is today.
She became one of Canada's first Master Certified Coaches in 2006 and has accumulated more than 15,000 coaching hours across 43 countries. But what distinguishes Lerae is not only longevity. It is discernment.
For more than two decades she has watched the profession evolve from a relationship-based practice into a rapidly expanding global field — and seen what becomes possible when standards, ethics, presence, and skill are held well, and what gets lost when they aren't.
That discernment is what led her to co-create BAM in 2020. Lerae saw that mentor coaching required its own education and its own developmental path. A strong coach does not automatically become a strong mentor coach. The role requires the ability to listen beneath performance, offer feedback without diminishing, uphold the competencies, and support a coach's growth without taking over their learning.
In 2026, she was appointed by the ICF to co-lead the first global Mentor Coaching Community of Practice — a role that reflects what many in the field already know: she is not simply teaching mentor coaching. She is helping shape the future of it.
Carolyn Hamilton-Kuby
A highly sought-after Thought Leader, Carolyn brings her vibrant spirit and passion for professional coach development to all she does. Carolyn is celebrating 24 years as the owner of Morningstar Centre For Engagement, located in Kingston, Ontario. She is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), holds a Certified Executive Coach (CEC) designation from Royal Roads University and, since 2009, has been a coach, mentor coach, coaching supervisor and coach educator.
She was selected by the ICF as a global subject matter expert in developing the competency models for Mentor Coaches, Coaching Supervisors, and Coach Educators — the three frameworks that now define professional standards across the full spectrum of coaching development roles. She was an ICF Mentor Coach and Coaching Supervision Advisory Council Member and is an ICF Coaching Education Global Ambassador. She was recognized with an Honorary Mention as an Accomplished Coach in the Professional Coach category of the 2024 ICF Coach Impact Awards.
Carolyn is a member of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School and is also a Harvard Business Review Advisory Council Member.
Understanding your pathway to Mentor Coaching Specialization.
Find the path that fits where you are.
All three BAM programs meet or exceed the Mentor Coach Specialization education requirements for the Credit for Prior Learning Pathway. The right choice depends on your experience, your timeline, and how deep you want to go.
BAM Accelerator
BAM Lite
BAM Certificate
What the MCS actually means.
The ICF's Mentor Coaching Specialization is a meaningful step toward professionalizing a part of the coaching world that has operated without consistent standards for too long.
What it means
- As of January 1, 2027, you must hold the MCS at the appropriate level for your mentor coaching hours to count toward a mentee's credential
- You must complete the ICF's evaluation tool training (ACC BARS, PCC Markers, or MCC BARS — depending on the level you mentor at)
- You must complete either 10+ hours of MCS-aligned mentor coaching education (CPL pathway, for experienced mentors) or 41+ hours (Standard Pathway, for those newer to the role)
- The MCS must be renewed every three years with 10 hours of ongoing mentor coaching education
What it doesn't
- You don't have to start over — experienced mentor coaches have a clear, accessible path through the CPL pathway
- Prior training aligned with the ICF Mentor Coaching Competencies can count toward your education hours
- Work you have already done is not erased
- It doesn't mean that a 10-hour async checkbox course is sufficient preparation — meeting the minimum requirement and being a genuinely equipped mentor coach are not the same thing
BAM was built to do more than meet a requirement. It was built to develop mentor coaches who are genuinely equipped — in skills, in presence, and in the ethical responsibility that this role carries.
Not sure which program is right for you?
What BAM Graduates Say
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
A Note on Quality
The MCS rollout has created urgency, and with urgency has come a flood of programs offering the minimum hours at the lowest price. We get the appeal. The deadline is real, the pressure is real, and a 10-hour async course sounds like a practical solution.
We don't offer that. Not because we couldn't, but because it isn't what this profession needs right now.
The ICF created the MCS because AI is was being used in performance evaluation processes, performative assessments were causing stress and inconsistency, and lack of education in the field was creating the potential for harm.
We're seeing coaches being mentored poorly, feedback being delivered inconsistently, standards being applied differently depending on who's in the room, and AI being used unethically and irresponsibly.
A checkbox program doesn't address any of that. It just adds a designation to the problem.
BAM was built to address the actual problem. The depth of its curriculum, the live community experience, the practicum feedback, the quality of its facilitators — these are not premium add-ons. They are what mentor coach education should be.
We believe the coaching profession deserves better than the minimum education and skill requirements. And we believe you do too.
