Are CSTD courses accredited?
CSTD was formally established as an independent body in 1979. Before then we, the tutors, had been running in-service supervision training for the Richmond Fellowship, whom we would like to honour for our early learning in this field.
Since 1979 we have been established as a Supervision training body and were probably the first in the country to focus exclusively in this field. 'Supervision in the Helping Professions' was published in 1989 and is now in its third edition. It is a seminal text, has sold over thirty five thousand copies and has been translated into Czech, Greek and Swedish.
We formalised our training into a certificate format in 1995 when supervisors were being asked to show evidence of their training. The training consists of 4 three-day modules plus supervision on supervision either one to one or in a group. The assessment process is three tutorials with one of the CSTD tutors, ten supervision sessions on supervision plus a rigorous self and peer assessment process with the student's supervisor, supervisees and a peer/colleague.
We have decided not to seek external accreditation for our certificate. It would considerably increase the cost of the course and would involve different student assignments than we presently require. We have found that our training has been running long enough to carry weight with employing authorities.