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3 Features the Best Life Coach Training Schools Offer

March 11, 2021 by Coach Training EDU

best life coach training schools

3 Features the Best Life Coach Training Schools Offer

You’ve decided to become a life coach, congrats! You’re going to embark on a journey in which you’ll grow both personally and professionally. The next big decision you need to make is which Life Coach Training School you’d like to attend. 

There are many options available, and we understand that finding the “right” coach training program can feel overwhelming, even confusing. We’ve narrowed it down to three features the best life coach training schools offer: Credibility & Longevity, Optimal Coaching Experience, and Accreditation & Licensing. 

Credibility & Longevity

It’s important to know if a life coach training program is credible. To determine an organization’s credibility, start with its history and what’s being said about it externally. Here are some questions to consider:

How long have you been training coaches?

This question will give you an idea of how much experience this organization has under its belt. The longer an organization has been around, the more time they’ve had to polish their program. This ensures that they’re providing coaches with the best training experience possible. Experience and feedback are essential in coaching, so finding a program that provides both is valuable. 

It’s also helpful to know how many coaches they’ve trained. This gives you an idea of their retention rate. You want to go through a program with a good completion rate that offers support to those struggling to make it to the end.

To what organizations or company teams have you provided training?

If you’re looking to have people at your organization or on your team become coach trained, this is the first question you should ask. You’ll see the program’s quality based on the organizations that have experienced this training while also learning how other organizations successfully applied coaching concepts at their respective organizations. 

What resources are available to graduates of your program?

When you become a life coach, you take a pledge to commit to life-long learning for the betterment of yourself, your clients, and your community. The best life coach training schools provide their alumni with resources to keep themselves educated. 

This may manifest itself in the form of free workshops, private social media groups, and access to any new additions to course materials. You want to make sure the school displays the same commitment to life-long learning and supports you in that journey. 

Optimal Coaching Experience

The next step is to learn more about the coaching experience for students. Unless you’ve been coached before, life coach training will probably be a whole new world to you. Understanding the classroom setting and what you can expect from your experience can have a huge impact on your coach training school decision. 

What coach specializations do you offer?

You have probably seen life coaches in all kinds of niches and may be interested in pursuing a specific niche yourself. Find a program with a specialized pathway for what you’re passionate about to make your coaching journey more tailored to your needs. 

At Coach Training EDU, we offer specializations in Academic, Wellness, and Executive coaching. Our Academic Life Coaching program trains people who are interested in empowering middle school, high school, and college students. In our Executive Life Coaching program, we train coaches to help maximize the potential of executives and entrepreneurs. For coaches interested in helping their clients create and maintain a healthy lifestyle, we offer a Wellness Life Coaching program.

What is the structure of your program? 

Depending on your learning style, you probably have an idea of your preferred learning environment. Inquire about class size, the length of the program, how often the class meets, what learning platforms they use and anything else that could impact your classroom experience. 

It’s also important to note that if the course was previously in-person but has moved online because of COVID-19, this could’ve had a significant impact on how the course is structured. You should ask what that transition was like for the school, what they’ve been doing to sustain the online model, and what the transition will be like after the pandemic. 

What support is provided to me if I want to build a coaching practice?

Life coaching is a booming industry. With so many different options out there, having someone guide you through the process of building your coaching practice is an invaluable asset.

Certain coach training schools provide coaches in training with business-building webinars, materials, and a network of alumni to connect with as support for starting their own life coaching business.

Depending on your goals as a coach, these kinds of resources can be pivotal in your journey to success, which  makes this worth asking. 

What is your curriculum based on?

The best life coach training school’s curriculum is grounded in positive psychology. Research-backed curriculum based on studied science is what gives the life coaching industry its credibility. Ask questions about what research was used to make the curriculum. In life coaching, research found in Sports Psychology or Positive Psychology are the fundamentals of powerful life coaching.

This leads back to the people providing the training. Life coaching trainers should be experts in the foundational research behind coaching, with hundreds of hours of coaching practice working with clients to match. An ICF-Credential is the best way to determine if the organization’s trainers are experts in the field. 

Accreditation & Licensing

Is the school accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF)?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) is a third-party organization responsible for setting the standards and regulating the life coaching industry. The best life coach training schools are accredited by the ICF, specifically through the Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP).

A coach training course with an ACTP has met the highest standards the ICF has set for a coaching course. Programs with an ACTP also put you on the most streamlined path for ICF Credentialing, with certain steps necessary for receiving an ICF Credential included in the life coach certification program. At the end of your coach training you want to be a certified life coach, make sure your school is accredited to give you that.

Choosing a life coach training school is a big decision, so ask the right questions. If you’re looking for easy answers to these questions about CTEDU, download our Your 15 Questions Answered.

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