As more people fancy themselves life coaches, training programs offer some credibility, coaches said.
“If someone is looking for a coach, they would want one that is certified,” said Sandy Vilas,CEO of Coach U, a global provider of coach training programs.
At Coach U, students can take the 73-hour core essentials program over several months or during a six-day intensive program.
Budding coaches then could take the advanced program, which is hundreds of hours of training, Vilas said.
The graduates can be certified on three different levels by the International Coach Federation, a nonprofit professional organization for personal and business coaches.
The industry has seen steady growth in the last several years, Vilas said, adding that Coach U sees about 700 new students each year.
But the classes don?t guarantee success, and many coaches share similar characteristics, Vilas said.
Coaches tend to care deeply about others and have a lot of life experience, patience and communication skills, Vilas said.
“The coach needs to be a model; their life needs to be in pretty good shape,” he said.
Women tend to be more intuitive, and therefore are more often life coaches, he said.
Kelly Castro said the most valuable education in her coaching career are her bachelor?s and master?s degrees in fine arts. Because she works with creative clients, she said she first needed the credentials of an artist.
“It means more than any certification from a coaching program,” she said, adding that she also will be certified in coaching next year.
