Get COA Certified

Through the COA, you can help your colleagues, students, or clients to achieve their goals and work effectively at each of the six levels of culture.

TMC’s Cultural Orientations Approach Certification enables business and government professionals, educators, and independent consultants to integrate and apply the TMC definition of culture, the six levels of culture, and related concepts in their work. Certified COA Practitioners have access to the COA Practitioner website, where they can view users’ COI reports, generate COI aggregate reports and demographic reports, compare user results with the norms of a specific country, and purchase program support materials. 

TMC offers three ways to become certified:

Each certification follows a comprehensive learning process of:

Online Preparation

In order for you to prepare for the classroom/online sessions, you must first develop an awareness of your own cultural preferences and how they may impact your work environment. As part of the COA Certification, we provide you with a one-year license to the Cultural Navigator®, TMC's online application for building cultural competence, to complete your COI assessment and review the Cultural Orientations at Work web course.

Classroom/Online Sessions

Once you have completed your online preparation, you will be taken through a series of classroom or online sessions which will further explore the COA and how you can apply it to your organization, educational institution, or clients. These sessions include real-world scenarios and discuss the four key cultural skills that you can utilize to help others develop their own cultural awareness and explore how their cultural preferences may impact them at each level of culture. The skills associated with debriefing the COI are also covered, ensuring that you feel comfortable exploring each cultural preference with your target group.

Practical Application

Once you have completed your classroom/online sessions, the final step to becoming certified is an online final examination that tests your comprehension of the topics and skills covered throughout the COA Certification. Upon successful completion of the COA Final Exam, you will be provided access to the COA Practitioner website and will become an official member of the COA Practitioner Community.

As a COA Certified Practitioner, you will enjoy an extensive array of benefits to help you apply the Cultural Orientations Approach in your work, including: