The PGA’s new dedicated assessment framework that enables PGA Professionals to demonstrate their impact, achievements and value to employers, golfers and the wider industry.
Replacing the previous APAL system, PGA Excel is a pathway to progression through the Association’s membership framework that will reward PGA Professionals for their impact and achievements and inspire them to reach their potential.
Different membership designations are awarded through PGA Excel, enabling Members to use these bands and the accompanying logos to market, promote and differentiate themselves from other PGA Members.
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For employers and the wider golf industry, the PGA membership designations achieved through the PGA Excel process are a valuable way to identify and recruit individuals to specific roles, where specific skills and experience are required, as well as being a stamp of approval and expertise. For a PGA Member, it enables them to articulate and demonstrate their impact and achievement to a prospective or existing employer by displaying their expertise and value accumulated throughout their careers.
Tristan Crew explains why PGA Excel will benefit employers and deployers of PGA Professionals.
The designations of Advanced, Fellow, Advanced Fellow and Master apply to all three Member specialisms of PGA Professional, PGA Coach and PGA Manager. PGA Master status represents the pinnacle of achievement, having only been awarded to just 61 individuals in the Association’s 120-year history.
Specialist professional markers have been recruited for each of the three categories so that applicants are assessed by specialists in that particular area and given tangible feedback.
For each specialism (Professional, Coach or Manager) the online application process directly relates to the four Value Blocks and their associated Expertise Areas sub-sections. These represent the fundamental skills and capabilities required and provide the criteria against which the assessments are made, with a weighted scoring system being applied to each Value Block.
Members are required to provide evidence relating to each of the four Value Blocks as part of their application, this could include coaching plans, business plans, performance statistics, playing records or any other relevant piece of information.
A simple online self-assessment tool has been developed that enables Members to review the scoring criteria and assess themselves against this before starting an application.
In addition, a new, at-a-glance table of eligibility criteria enables Members to see if they meet the criteria to move forward and ascertain the appropriate level for an application.
The Value Blocks are the foundation of the PGA Excel assessment framework and provide the guidance on the breadth and depth of information needed to progress up the designations. They represent a professional framework of expertise which a PGA Member will have, and are tangible and identifiable areas that The PGA teaches through the training programme and provides ongoing CPD on for further learning. They represent the subjects that a good Pro should already know and will also continue to develop their knowledge of.
Within each specialism (PGA Professional and PGA Coach), there are four Value Blocks, and within the PGA Manager specialism there are three. Within each of these sit the many expertise areas that Members are assessed against. Value Blocks represent the pillars of each Membership category and consist of a number of sub-sections that we call Expertise Areas.
The Expertise Areas – which combine to form each Value Block - represent a grouping of the skills, attributes and capabilities required to excel in each of the new Member categories. They also provide the criteria against which assessments are made.
View the Value Blocks and Expertise Areas for each designation here
The Value Blocks are relevant, tangible and identifiable areas where The PGA adds value to its Members through education, general support and the PGA Learn CPD platform and app which reflect these different categories and sections.
Just as importantly, each individual Member can then articulate and demonstrate their value to a prospective or existing employer by displaying their accumulated skills and knowledge. Identifying PGA Members’ areas of speciality has enabled The PGA to provide a much more relevant and comprehensive method of assessing their competence and impact, and recognise them in a way that can be easily understood by Members, employers and the industry as a whole.
