8 Responses

1. Happy to chat about this with you
   Kathleen

   I moved to coaching from IT consultancy, 15 months ago. It is hard to give quick feedback here, but I would be very happy to chat with you about my experiences.

   Email jacky@ambitioncoach.com or call 01604 889152 if you would like to.

2. check the qualifications
   Kathleen,
   have recently moved into the coaching arena myself and recommend you research qualifications / certification. Problem at present is that there are a lot of organisations offering “coaching certificate/diploma” etc that are only self regulated. ENTO the Standards setting body is currently working on national standards. Meanwhile, organisations like ILM offer certificated programmes and these obviously have some credibiltiy within the sector rather than a diploma from joe soap.

   Phone if you want to talk it through
   01292 260393

3. If you want to be a coach then you are coach.
   Hi Kathleen, If you want to be a coach then you are probably ready to be a coach. For me the difference between coaching and training is that you just don’t know what to expect when you are a coach but if you’ve been a trainer for some time then you’ve probably got enough knowledge to handle it. The thing to be sure of is that you can emit the kind of confidence people need in order to believe in you as a person and to be able to enjoy your coaching sessions. Build special rapport with particpants in your training sessions – this is how I started one to one coaching (not in IT but Presentation), by one of my trainees asking for special coaching. Then the work started to snowball from there. You have to start building your reputation and making yourself visible – ask for written testimonials to show others, for example. When people feel they have really been helped by you in a very positive and practical way they go away and tell others about you.

4. Coaching Qualification
   Kathleen
   I’m just finishing an ILM Diploma in Coaching Course at Loughborough College and found it enjoyable and interesting. There have been some recent scare stories about life coaches and to get a recognised qualification in this area is a good idea. I’ve been coaching at work for a while and really enjoy the coaching role – its a priviledge to watch the development of colleagues.

5. Thanks for replies
   I would just like to say many thanks to the people who have taken the time to reply to my post.

   I have written to some of you on an individual basis, and have found your advice to be extremely valuable. I am really glad that I asked this question, as there are issues regarding accreditation in coaching that I was not aware of.

   I am still researching and hoping to speak with some of you at a later time.

   Many thanks.

6. Coaching Training
   Hi, I’ve done the Necastle College Life Coaching Certificate and Im doing the Diploma. People are somethimes put off by the term Life Coach, but the course goes through coaching in general. It’s didtance based and the good thing is that it’s free, however requires commiment. The Certificate gives you information on coaching and makes you undertake a lot of self analysis, whereas the diploma requires 60 hours of coaching to be undertaken, so it isn’t just theory. There’s quite a lot of paperwork to provide the evidence and that’s good to ensure you keep good client records. NLP tends to be one of the main areas that’s looked on favourable and you can cover this at a basic level, or go into it as an NLP Practitioner, Matser Practistioner and Train the Trainer level. These are quite costly and take time to pass, however it usually includes around 17 days training either in 2 blocks or borken up to allow time to absorb and practice and complete your studies. I hope this is of some use to you. Best of luck!!

   Dave

7. Coaching

   Hi,

   I have also been through this dilema of deciding, remeber most companies use coaching/evaluations as within a Trainers role, you can study more coaching frameworks part-time at college.
   Life Coach is a neche market and in UK not used much but in America it’s a new concept.
   fizza

8. Coaching – transition from technical training
   Hi Kathleen
   a late reply to your request. I have moved during the past 4 years from project management training (technical and soft skills)and consultancy into business coaching. I researched the area fairly thoroughly prior to undertaking the Corporate CoachU business and executive training programme. I would recommend that you include them in your research (web – Coachinc.com), as in my opion they are close to being the leaders in the coach training arena and courses are available as face to face and/or via teleclasses. I would also recommend a visit to the website for the International Coach Federation – they are probably the premier independant coach credentialing organisation and have a well established accreditation system and assessmsent for coaching competencies – a long way ahead of what is happening in this area in the UK currently, ref trying to set-up and introduce standards for coaching. The CoachU programmes includes trasining in the common set of core competencies and then you can branch into either the general / life coaching or the business coaching stream. Overall I would recommend doing a thorough research of the types of programmes available as a lot of ‘come latelies’ are available now, but the level and quality of coach training is pretty variable. It really is an excellent transition to make, I’m thoroughly pleased with having made the move. My encouragement and best wishes with your research and decision making – regards William Wallace (emial – william@ifconsulting.info)