Edu-Preneur: Create Your Own Supervisor Training Course

“What is holding you back from creating your own 40-hour supervisor training?”

This question was part of the presentation I was giving with Dr. Paul Carrola and Dr. Amy Wilson at the Texas Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Mid-Winter conference. I was speaking to a room of about fifteen people curious about how to pull off a forty-hour supervisor training in their community. The most common barrier? Time. Participants worried about the time they would need to divert from their practices to create content and manage participants. In my article “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Creating a Counselor Supervisor Course,” I described some key components to help potential course designers. After my TACES presentation, however, I realized I need to talk about content, systems, and tools.

Supervisor Training Content

Supervisor training course content is prescribed by state licensing boards, accrediting bodies, and universities. In many states this is spelled out explicitly. The Texas LPC code, for example, defines the topics that must be covered in a supervisor training course. Unfortunately, since most potential supervisor trainers are not professional educators they don’t have easy access to powerpoints and textbooks. In those instances the content must be generated the old fashioned way, outsourced to content developers for a fee, or borrowed from public domain sources.

Participant Management Systems

Potential supervisor training participants will go through three stages: pre-purchasers, participants, and course graduates. Supervisor trainers must be able to manage expectations at each stage. Good participant management systems, organizational systems, and financial systems can help. Pre-purchasers need information about eligibility and law. They need quick responses to email and phone queries.  Most will also need to know your refund policy before they decide to follow through with their purchase. Participants have assignments to complete and deadlines to meet. If your supervisor training course requires online or outside assignments, then you must have a system to keep track of successful completion. Course graduates will need support and access to replacement certificates. Remember graduation from your course doesn’t mean the course graduate is automatically granted supervisor status. There may be a waiting period to gather more experience.  In Texas the course is only good for two years and Texas LPCs only have ninety days to complete it. You must have a system to track and be able to prove when the course graduates officially began and successfully (or unsuccessfully) completed your course.

Practical Tools

Course graduates appreciate helpful tools to help them begin integrating supervision into their private practice. It’s great if you can offer them supervisor toolkits, helpful software ideas, and economical apps. Remember your course graduates are your best source of good reviews and new referrals so help them leave your course feeling fully equipped! Follow up with them through emails and social media and help them stay connected with state organizations and other course graduates.
Content, systems, and tools are just a few things that will really make your supervisor training stand out and benefit your participants. Keep checking this blog for more great ideas!