Confused about Coach training programs?

There’s a lot of confusion out there about coach training. I hear stories every day of people buying programs that are supposed to teach them how to coach. Eventually they find out the program they bought was junk. Let the buyer beware! Look, anybody can “Certify” you. They can make up their own “Certificate” and if they can sell you on it, they’re in business. There aren’t laws preventing this. So how do you know a particular certification is any good?

This FAQ sheet is intended to give YOU the questions to ask as you look at coach training programs so you can compare apples to apples. If you call up a training academy or attend their webinar, you should look for clear answers to these things.

First things first: I don’t care if they call it “Transformational” or “Fitness” or “Lifechanging” or “Career” or “Executive Leadership” or "Wellness" or “whatever” coaching: there is a core set of skills which anyone can learn that all the best programs have to be able to teach you. These are called "Core Competencies" and they are not related to any particular niche in the coaching world, they are considered essential for every niche. There are plenty of different ways to teach them! I am not talking about skills related to marketing yourself as a coach, but to delivering consistent quality in your coaching sessions, so your clients experience growth and positive change in their life/business/etc.

ASK: 1) Is the course certified by the International Coach Federation? 2) If not, will I be able to earn an ICF credential with this course anyway? (sometimes the answer is legitimately yes) 3) If the answer to Question 2 is yes, how do you know? There’s only one certifying body I really care about. The ICF has a good reputation in Europe from Lisbon to Moscow, in Lagos, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore (especially Singapore!) Sydney, and Tokyo. If you want to be taken seriously for corporate work or get work with many coaching agencies, this is becoming a must. That’s because the ICF does a great job of maintaining standards. Several years ago I failed and had to re-take an assessment before earning a next-level credential. The ICF is a third-party agency, meaning while they want you to succeed in moving up in the coaching world, they won’t hesitate to tell you that you aren’t cutting the mustard. In other words, they keep the industry honest. If you can’t show competence, you can’t get the credential. This keeps training programs honest, too! If the academy in question wants good referrals they’d better do a good job preparing you for the third-party credentialing review. An ICF course contains a certain number of hours spent on Core Competencies. That means the course will have a deliverable for you that’s real: if you take the training seriously you will have a new set of conversational skills. You will be equipped for great conversations. You will have a refinement and consistency of delivery to your service that throw-up-a-shingle coaches and other magicians and gurus rarely have. 

ASK: How many Student Contact hours does the training contain? First, if they don’t know what this means, red flag. Student contact hours means time directly spent with a trainer, either live or on Zoom, but not recorded videos, not books and readings, not homework assignments. The first trick to comparing courses is Student Contact hours. You should know that to earn your Associate Certified Coach credential with the ICF you need 60 hours, and 80% of these should be “Synchronous” meaning a trainer is present. If the program provides fewer than 48 Student Contact Hours you're not going to have enough.

You can find a course for $500 that says 60 hours, but only 12 are synchronous, while another has 60 hours and costs six times more but has a ratio of 60:48. With 36 more hours invested by experienced trainers who show up in person, which one would you expect to cost more? There is a good reason that excellent training is pricey - excellent training means your trainers can't just throw some videos online and let them sit.

A training with over 60 hours could be good too. If you eventually want to earn a “Professional” or “Master” credential, you will need well over 60 hours of training some time down the road. Recently I talked to someone who was considering another course that was within $50 USD of my program’s price. However, he was comparing their 60 hours to our 80 hours. Sure, he could save some time up front, but eventually, if he wants to go to the PCC level, he’ll need more hours later.

ASK: Is Mentor Coaching included in the price? Mentor coaching is a specific thing offered by experienced coaches that is essential in the process of earning an ICF credential. Generally people hire their mentor coach after completing a training program, but before applying for a credential. Some programs have mentor coaching included in the price, others don’t. Since mentor coaching can run from $1000 to $1500 or more, it is good to know if your journey will include additional costs.

ASK: Will I have to pay you annually or monthly to license your resources? Another way coach training programs sometimes capitalize on your attendance is to ask you to pay a regular licensing fee for materials they’ve made available to you. In a sense, this means you’ll become a salesperson for their products. This isn’t wrong or bad, necessarily, but be aware of it.

ASK: How many people are in the cohort? What’s the instructor to trainee ratio? Along with contact hours, these questions are critical in understanding how much attention you’ll get.   

Other things to be aware of before you begin: What’s the attendance policy? If you have an emergency and can’t continue the training, what’s the refund policy?

Check out our upcoming training at Motivational Listening International . Adam G. Fleming has more than a decade of experience training people in coaching skills (core competencies) and is currently the lead trainer/curriculum developer on contract for three other companies. One training program he developed was certified by the ICF for 92 hours Approved Coach-Specific Training Hours in December 2020. Now, in March, 2021, we're beginning our own training program. We’re not hiding the fact that we’re a new player in the market, so we’re giving some extra value right now, We’re out to set the tone for great training for the next twenty years, and we train with passion and purpose, so we’ll gladly spend the time to answer all your questions, help you compare programs for free, and if someone else is a better fit for your needs and goals, we promise to tell you so. Schedule here for a free 30 minute consultation.