Five steps to complete your PGA Excel application

16/05/2023

These five steps provide PGA Members with a useful guide on how to start and complete a successful PGA Excel application.

1. BE PREPARED

This is your opportunity to be recognised by your peers and demonstrate your impact and achievement to the golf industry.

You can submit one PGA Excel application every 12 months, making it vitally important that you understand and appreciate the level of detail needed to submit a successful application.

Be prepared to provide detail and evidence to support your PGA Excel application. For example, if you are applying to become a PGA Advanced Professional, you need to prove you are ‘highly capable’ with ‘solid’ evidence of your impact and achievement in your application.

For those applying to become a Fellow Professional, you must show evidence that you excel in your field delivering significant impact in all aspects of your role.

What to include:

Examples of your coaching plans, links to your business/marketing plans.
Details of your achievements at your current and previous (if applicable) facility.
Examples of game development initiatives and their outcomes.
Evidence of how you have applied the education that you have undertaken with reference to the impact that it has delivered.
Examples of how you have represented yourself, your facility and your Association in a positive way.
Choose examples that are synonymous with the level to which you are applying. The higher the designation the more impactful or complex the level of evidence required.

What NOT to include:

A picture of you coaching. If you are supplying an image, explain how the image supports your application and provide context.
You are not required to supply links to your social media accounts or websites.
Numerous links with limited relevance – ensure that the links provided are substantiated in the text.
Take care to avoid repetition / waffle.

Another key consideration before you start your application is to make sure you are applying for the right category of Membership.

As part of The PGA’s 2020 Vision initiative, three specialist categories (Professional, Coach and Manager) were formed instead of one general category, to enable Members to promote themselves as specialists, differentiate themselves from their peers and elevate themselves further by working towards achieving Advanced, Fellow,
Advanced Fellow and Master status.

For example, a PGA Professional can apply to become an Advanced Coach and continue their development by specialising as a PGA Coach. Members who apply in the wrong category will find it very difficult to move up through the designations.

2. GAIN ACCREDITED STATUS

In order for you to start your PGA Excel application, you must gain accredited status through PGA Learn. You can do this by: Submitting a CPD journal via PGA Learn online or...through the new PGA Learn app.

Your journal must meet the minimum CPD standards for the current CPD year (1st November 2022 – 31st October 2023). All you need to do is log into PGA Learn and meet or exceed the current minimum learning hours (currently 15).

Completing and submitting your CPD Journal will also ensure your CPD records are up-to-date and reflect the
personal development you have done.

CLICK HERE to find out more about CPD accreditation through PGA Learn.

3. CHECK IF YOU MEET ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND MAKE YOUR OWN SELF-ASSESSMENT

The new, easy-to-use eligibility criteria table will help you with your PGA Excel application. Check if you meet the criteria to move forward into a new designation by viewing a description of all designations within each of the three categories and what the typical years in PGA Membership are for each designation.

You can now also review the scoring criteria ahead of starting your application through a new self-assessment initiative which delivers immediate guidance on where you are against your current designation based on the information you enter.

4. START YOUR APPLICATION

The previous offline, admin-heavy process where you had to fill in pages and pages of word documents and post to HQ has been replaced with a digital form which you can access via the Members’ area of pga.info.

Start, save and return to your application whenever you like and submit at your convenience. Always remember to refer to your impact and achievements throughout your application. Explain what it is you
have achieved and how you went from recognising the opportunity to how you addressed it.

All three PGA designations (Professional, Coach and Manager) are underpinned by Value Blocks. These consist of a number of sub-sections and Expertise Areas, detailing skills, attributes and capabilities required to excel in each Member category and are pivotal to your application. The Value Blocks demonstrate the breadth and depth of evidence that is needed for your application and they represent the criteria against which an assessment is made.

CLICK HERE to find out more about the Value Blocks.

5. SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

Once you are happy that you have completed your application to the best of your ability, you are now ready to
press submit!

You only get one shot every 12 months so make your application as detailed and as thorough as you can.

As part of the new PGA Excel process, you will receive feedback on your application from the marker, as well
as links to supporting content and resources in PGA Learn to help with any resubmissions.

If you require any help with your PGA Excel application please get in touch with the Membership department by contacting: membership@pga.org.uk or call 01675 470 333.

You can submit your application anytime of the year, but there are key submission dates to consider as PGA Excel applications are marked quarterly.