You can access our course calendar which we keep up to date here. You will also be able to find the dates with the application form below the courses` description on our website.

In addition to our open courses throughout the year, we run tailored training worldwide that supports organisations` work, such as, in designing M&E and organisational learning systems, strategic planning, and Training of Trainers. We can deliver these trainings designed to your team`s or organisation`s needs online, in person or with a hybrid (online and face-to-face) participatory approach. Find out more about Tailored Training or contact us to discuss your options.

Yes. We offer a 20% discount if you have been on one of our scheduled or Tailored Training courses before, and a discount for organisations who make a group booking.

Included in the course fee is: tuition (online learning platform, group work, one-to one support throughout), resources and training materials that can be downloaded from our online learning platform, 1 to 1 mentoring session with your trainers 3 months after the training, access to the course and materials for 6 months.

Included in the course fee is: tuition (presentations, group activities and one-to-one support throughout), a field visit (where practical) on courses more than five days, a hard copy of training materials (and on USB), course certificate and participant group photo, light refreshments throughout, a social and cultural programme which includes an evening dinner and a 1 to 1 coaching session with a certified coach on our fifteen day courses.

Most of our participants are sponsored by their organisation. If you do not have a sponsor, you will need to find what funding streams are available to you. Although we look for ways to help participants with the course fees, we regret we are currently not able to offer any form of sponsorship or funding.

Fees are usually paid by electronic bank transfer. Your invoice will have our full bank details on it.

We prefer payment in Pounds Sterling (GBP). However, we can accept payment by bank transfer in US Dollars (USD) or Euros. If your sponsor would like to pay in US Dollars or Euro’s please let us know when your sponsor confirms they will pay for you to do the course. You can also pay by Visa, MasterCard or JCB credit cards. Please contact us and we will send you further details of how to do this.

All course fees must be paid in full at least four weeks before the face-to-face course is due to start, one week before online training. All bank charges are the sponsor’s responsibility.

When your sponsor has agreed to pay for your training, our acceptance letter will help you to obtain a visa from the relevant embassy in your country.

Please check visa requirements and your eligibility to enter the country where the course is taking place before applying for a course and allow adequate time to obtain your visa. In some countries this can take several weeks, so please find out the time involved to obtain your visa as soon as you can. Some participants find it useful to speak to colleagues who have been previously successful in getting a visa. Our courses are held in hotels and conference centres. Our office is in Sussex, UK. If you are applying for a UK course, please see our UK visa guidelines. 

Your sponsor is the person who authorises payment of the course fees. This is usually your manager or training manager. You need to put their contact details on our application form so we know your organisation has authorised your course fees and supports your application. Once we have reviewed your application, your sponsor will need to send us official confirmation of sponsorship.

1: Go to ’’Courses’’ , select a course: you can read more about the specific course here and you can find the application form by clicking on ’’Apply”

2: Send in your application form.

3: IMA’s team will process this within 3 days and send you a confirmation email and invoice, Learning Needs Statement form for you to return before the course starts (this helps our facilitators understand your learning needs) and the Terms and Conditions.

4: Pay your course fee according to the sent invoice.

5: The course is confirmed and the joining instructions are sent one week before the training starts.

Application Process:

1. Complete your application form
2. IMA reviews your application
3. Your Sponsor confirms budget
4. IMA receives your payment
5. Course is confirmed and you receive your Welcome Pack.
6. Book your flights and accommodation
7. Course starts

Help:

If you have any questions regarding your application or sponsorship, please call IMA International on +44 1273 833030.

1. Once you have chosen your course, fill in our online application, please e-mail us if you have any problems.

2. We will assess your application within 3 days.

3. If you have a sponsor, we will contact them.

4. Once we receive the Confirmation of Sponsorship, we will send the invoice, acceptance letter and visa support letter.

5. The invoice is paid.

6. We will confirm your course at least four weeks before the start date. Then send a Welcome Pack for you to go ahead and book flights and accommodation. If we have to cancel the course and you have already paid, we will refund the amount in full.

Our courses of five days or more include free social events. These are optional but provide a good chance to find out about the wider development community and build links with your fellow participants and IMA people. We try to schedule at least one event a week. We sometimes also arrange a weekend trip for the 10-day courses. Our social events include sightseeing and cultural excursions, dinners and activities such as bowling. Watch our video about what’s included on our training courses here.

We recommend that you stay close to the training venue, ideally at the venue where possible. We send you a broad range of accommodation options in your Welcome Pack four weeks before your course is due to start.

Our open courses are held in different locations around the world: UK (London and Brighton), South Africa (Cape Town), Thailand (Bangkok) and Belgium (Brussels). Our venues are centrally located hotels and conference centres. We send you a Welcome Pack four weeks before your course is due to start which has useful information on the city where the course is being held as well as extra course information.

Your fellow participants will come from a wide range of international development organisations around the world. This diversity means you can share your own experience and learn from others’. Our class sizes are up to 20 people.

– We use a mix of instructor led webinars and an interactive platform with video’s, quizzes, self-study assignments and groupwork.

– We give people their own time to self-study through our recorded modules which ask questions and point people to resources.

– We also allow people time to reflect and share with other participants on the course in pairs and small groups.

– Above all this, we have live webinar sessions that all participants on the course are invited to attend for 90 minutes to share experiences, challenge the thinking and work in break out groups.

– Beyond this, you will have access to all resources for 6 months and our facilitators will contact you 3 months after the course has finished to follow up your learning and to see if you have been able to apply any skills, if you need any support and what changes happened during this time.

IMA’s training style is participatory and interactive using a blend of short informative lectures and group work. Throughout the courses we give participants opportunities to share experiences, exchange ideas and network with other development practitioners.

Our course facilitators are expert development practitioners. Their skills and experience come from doing training and consultancy work around the world with different organisations. With expertise grounded in practical experience, we guarantee our training is relevant and up-to-date to the needs of our participants.

All our open courses are delivered in English. You need good spoken English to work effectively with your facilitators and other participants. As much of our course content is technical and we use a participatory approach, you need to be an effective communicator in English. This means an IELTS score of six or above, a paper TOEFL score of 550, or a computer TOEFL score of 210.

Nearly all our training participants work in international development. This includes working for a government, a private company, a non-government organisation, multilateral organisation, a smaller local projects or programme, or as a freelance consultant.

As a training provider our trainings are accredited by HPass. We are also a member of The Continuing Professional Development Certification Service. Find out more about our accreditation here.

You will receive a certificate on completion of the course, having fulfilled all the course requirements.

• Visit the coaching page of our website.
• Fill in an application form. This lets us know what you’d like to talk to the coach about, so we can choose a coach for you and put you in touch with them.
• We will send you a copy of our Coaching Code of Ethics and a Pre-Session Questionnaire to fill in.
• The coach will contact you to arrange your free introductory session. In this session, the coach will clarify your goals and explain how coaching works, so you can both be sure the coaching relationship will work well. This is your opportunity to ask any questions about coaching.
• We’ll send you (or your sponsor) the coaching contract and our invoice. Once we receive payment, you’re ready to start the coaching.

Yes. Many organisations are training their managers to be in-house coaches. When managers learn coaching skills, it helps them to transform their people management style, unlocking the potential of their reports and so leading to increased productivity and morale.
Our coaches have experience in designing and implementing in-house coaching programmes and have a proven coaching toolkit to make it easy to train your managers in how to become coaches.

Experience tells us that 50 minutes on the phone is the optimum time for you to get the most benefit from the conversation you have with your coach. Many people find it is difficult to focus for longer than 50 minutes. We allow up to 10 minutes for the phone connection to be made so the 50 minutes is focused entirely on you and your goals.

We understand that you may have complex demands on your time and so we can offer sessions of different lengths; if you’d prefer to have a longer period please let us know. For face-to-face sessions, it is common to have a longer period, and this is reflected in our price structure.

Coaching by phone provides three key advantages over face-to-face coaching:

• It allows full access to professional coaches at a time that is mutually convenient to both you and the coach. This is especially helpful when you have heavy programme or travel commitments.
• It provides a degree of anonymity, which enables the client to reflect in a calm environment on the coaching input. Our coaches are fully experienced in working over the phone to establish rapport quickly and understand the coaching goals you have.
• It enables us to keep the cost of coaching down, since we do not need to take into account the time and cost of travelling to a specific venue.

If you’d prefer a face-to-face discussion, we can arrange this. Please call us to discuss options.

With coaching, you have a professional expert focused entirely on your specific needs, so you can make rapid progress on the areas which are most important to you. The high quality, objective and immediate feedback you receive as you discuss your ideas will help you make a dramatic change in your personal insight and perspective.

In fact, coaching and training go very well together. Training provides great opportunities to learn new skills and meet with others. People who receive coaching after a training course find they have a much greater success rate in applying their new skills in the workplace.

Our coaching options mean that you can adapt your spending to your budget. You can take an Individual Session to address a specific topic, or you can have a Personal Programme or Organisational Programme to give you a series of coaching sessions at budget prices.

As individual performance and motivation increase, productivity improves across the organisation:

• More innovative and sustainable strategies
• Better use of time leading to improved efficiency
• More capable of overcoming challenges
• Healthier, happier and more committed teams
• Quicker and better decision making
• Increased effectiveness of training when coaching is used as a follow-up to consolidate learning

Having a professional coach to help you focus on achieving your goals is very empowering. Typical ways in which coaching helps include:

• Accelerate your personal development to reach your full potential
• Boost your existing skills and learn new ones to become more effective
• Use communications skills more effectively to win the hearts and minds of your staff
• Get a fresh, independent perspective on organisational issues
• Get focused, confidential support on your personal challenges
• Regain your work-life balance
• Manage your career choices

Each client and organisation is unique, so we design and tailor coaching for your particular needs and goals. Success in coaching depends on having a high level of trust in the relationship, so before your first coaching session you have a free introductory session to talk about your goals, how coaching works and to make sure your coach is a good match for your particular needs. We follow the International Coach Federation Code of Ethics so your coaching relationship will be confidential and professional at all times.