The Certification Process

To become a certified facilitator with INIFAC requires that you submit four items for review and assessment. 

Once you fill out the application form and pay the required fees, you will be emailed a full packet for review of information and materials.  You can then earn the most prestigious facilitation certification in the world!

The Certification Process

In its role in providing the top certification in facilitation related fields, INIFAC uses a consistent approach to ensure excellence based on 3 elements
  • Documented Experience
  • Demonstrated Excellence
  • Accessibility by using written, virtual and video to complete the application and receive feedback.

You start with an application that documents your relevant experience and submit it and the related fee to INIFAC by email. As you would expect, the Master level certifications (CMF® and CMLF®) require more information than the other applications. To understand the application process for the certification you are interested in pursuing, click on one of the following links.

  • You must demonstrate that you meet the experience requirements for certification by documenting at least thirty (30) relevant facilitated sessions over the three-year period prior to application. Fifty percent (15) of those sessions MUST have been facilitated in person, the other fifty percent can be hybrid or virtual. If you already hold the CPF™ from IAF, a CCF®, CSF® or CAVF® from INIFAC, you will receive a credit for 10 facilitated sessions.

  • You must submit reference letters from a minimum of five clients.
  • You must provide a written submission that responds to questions about your knowledge and experience across each of the six main competencies and thirty sub-competencies for professional facilitator. You must score an average of 4.0 out of 5.0 in each main competency area.
  • You must submit a written facilitator guide and a video of you facilitating an session based on a topic and specific participant role plays provided by INIFAC.

Requirements for your thirty (30) Facilitation Sessions:

  • Include at least 15 in-person sessions. The other 15 may be virtual sessions.
  • Be at least 90 minutes in length.
  • Include a minimum of five participants, not including you as the facilitator.
  • Result in a shared deliverable (i.e., action list, decision, priorities, next steps) created through participants’ interaction.
  • Involve the participants speaking at least 2/3rds of the time.
For Certified Competent Facilitator®, Certified Skilled Facilitator®, Certified Learning Facilitator®, or Certified Advanced Virtual Facilitator®: The basic process is exactly the same, and the competencies and sub competencies are also the same.  Here are the differences:
  • Seven (7) facilitated sessions are required for the experience requirements instead of (30). For the CAVF® application, ALL of those sessions MUST be virtual.

  • You must score a minimum of 2.5 out of 5.0 in the six main competencies.

For our Certified Virtual Facilitator® assessment, you will set a time for a 30-minute demonstration session of your virtual facilitation skills.