Coach training covers accredited qualifications, courses and programmes for people becoming professional coaches, and for organisations building internal coaching capability. Programmes are accredited by bodies such as the ICF, EMCC, the Association for Coaching and ILM, at levels from introductory through to advanced practitioner and supervisor.
Compare coach training providers, coaching schools and executive coaching courses across the UK by accrediting body, qualification level, delivery format and independent ratings.
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The Coaching Academy is a coach training organisation established in 1999, with its head office in Chiswick, London.
It runs diplomas in life coaching, business coaching, corporate and executive coaching, and coaching within education. It also offers a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner programme, a two-week NLP diploma and DISC (dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness) personality profiling certification. All training is delivered live online, with materials on an online learning platform. Most diplomas take 9 to 12 months, and courses are for individuals training to become coaches.
The Specialist Coach Programme, combining the Life Coaching Diploma with one specialist diploma, is listed at £3,950 including value added tax (VAT) on the Association for Coaching (AC) pathway, or £5,870 on the International Coaching Federation (ICF) pathway. The academy states that its Life Coaching Diploma is an ICF accredited Level 1 programme and that its core life coaching programme holds the AC's Accredited Certificate in Coach Training. It states it has trained more than 14,000 people. Its chief executive is Bev James.
Life and personal coach, Executive and business coachICF Level 1AC
Starbuck & Associates is a Lincolnshire-based coaching and leadership development firm, winner of the National Coaching Awards Coaching Business of the Year 2025 and a certified B Corp.
Their team of ICF Master Certified Coaches (MCCs), placing them in the top 4% of coaches globally, delivers CEO and executive coaching, team coaching, NED coaching, and accelerating women in leadership programmes.
ICF accredited coach training is delivered under The Coaching Craft brand, with ACC (ICF Level 1) and PCC (ICF Level 2) routes and an MCC route on a waiting list. ELCAS funding is available for service leavers.
Rated Excellent on Trustpilot, with ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certification.
Executive and business coach, Life and personal coachICF Level 1, 2, 3EMCC, ILM
UKCPD, the UK College of Personal Development, is an online coaching, leadership and personal development college with a London address, started in 1998.
It teaches Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) qualifications in coaching and mentoring at Levels 5 and 7, ILM leadership and management courses, life coaching diplomas, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) from foundation to master practitioner level, and short continuing professional development (CPD) courses. Learners include new and practising coaches, managers, human resources staff and people changing career. Study is online, mixing self-paced materials with live online workshops, group tutor sessions and one-to-one supervision, and learners can start at any time. ILM coaching qualifications can take up to three years, though UKCPD suggests aiming for about a year at Level 5.
Prices include value added tax (VAT). The ILM Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring costs £2,395 and the ILM Level 7 Diploma for Executive and Senior Level Coaches and Mentors costs £3,295, with interest-free monthly plans for UK students. UKCPD states it is an ILM Approved Centre, that its life coaching courses are accredited by the Association for Coaching (AC) and that its NLP courses are accredited by the Association for NLP (ANLP). Most courses were taught at its Swindon centre until it became an online college in 2022.
Life and personal coach, Mentor or supervisorILM, AC
London, United KingdomNo Google or Trustpilot reviews
Animas Centre for Coaching is a UK coach training school founded in 2008 by Nick Bolton, with all of its training delivered online.
Its main course, the Accredited Diploma in Transformative Coaching, is for people training as life, executive or internal coaches, and for those who want to use coaching in an existing role. It runs as six two-day live virtual modules in groups of up to 15. Students also get one-to-one mentoring from a coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), twice-monthly group supervision, observed practice and assessment, and have up to 12 months to complete. Animas also lists 12-week certificate programmes in existential, psychodynamic, Jungian and other coaching approaches, currently taking names for a waiting list.
The diploma costs £6,995 with no VAT charged, and some 2026 places are listed at £6,495. A £995 deposit secures a place, with the balance payable in full or in 10 interest-free instalments. Animas states that the diploma is accredited by the ICF at Level 2, by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) at Senior Practitioner level and by the Association for Coaching. Nick Bolton also founded the International Centre for Coaching Supervision, and Ruth Randall is chief executive.
Life and personal coach, Executive and business coachICF Level 2EMCC, AC
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom 4.3 (9)
Optimus Coach Academy is a coach training school based in London, set up in 2019 and run by Kudzi Coaching & Training Ltd.
It runs two coaching diplomas, both taught live online over Zoom with recordings, and neither needs previous coaching experience. The Associate Coach Diploma has 85 hours of training over four months, with weekly three-hour sessions and 10 hours of mentor coaching. The Professional Coach Diploma has 175 hours of training over about eight months, in groups of up to 14, also with 10 hours of mentor coaching. It also offers an Advanced Accreditation in Team Coaching, with monthly four-hour sessions over 9 to 10 months for up to 12 people, and shorter certifications in mentoring and in neurodiversity in coaching.
The Associate Coach Diploma costs £4,740 including value added tax (VAT), or six payments of £801.60. The Professional Coach Diploma costs £7,140 including VAT, or 12 monthly payments of £630, and the team coaching programme is £2,000 plus VAT. Optimus states that both diplomas are accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), at Level 1 and Level 2 respectively, by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and by the Association for Coaching (AC). EMCC Global has announced a Practitioner-level EMCC Global Quality Award (EQA) for the Professional Coach Diploma. Its founder and course director, Ruth Kudzi, states she holds the ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential.
Team coach, Mentor or supervisorICF Level 1, 2EMCC
Noble Manhattan Coaching, founded in 1993 by Gerard O'Donovan, is one of the world's largest coaching training organisations operating across 31 countries. Offering ICF, ILM, and IAPC&M accredited coach training programmes, from foundation through to executive and corporate coaching, alongside in-house coaching culture programmes for organisations. Multi-award winning with a reputation for ongoing graduate support and community.
Executive and business coach, Coaching skills for managersICF, ILM
Evolution Coaching Academy is a coach training school based in Malvern, founded by Lilith Joanna Flanagan.
It runs three courses accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), each linked to an ICF credential. The Birth of a Coach at Level 1 is for the Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Intuitive Coach at Level 2 for the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and EcoSystem Master Coach at Level 3 for the Master Certified Coach (MCC). Courses are taught live on Zoom in small groups, in modules of two or three days held every few weeks over several months, and The Birth of a Coach is also run in Italian. The Level 1 course gives 83 ICF contact hours. It also sells one-to-one coaching, mentor coaching for coaches seeking a credential and coaching supervision.
Published prices are £2,790 to £2,990 for The Birth of a Coach, £2,990 for Intuitive Coach with early booking and £3,750 for EcoSystem Master Coach with early booking. One-to-one coaching costs £200 an hour, or £500 an hour for business coaching, and MCC mentoring costs £500 an hour. Lilith Flanagan is listed as an ICF Master Certified Coach and states that she has served as an ICF assessor for more than a decade. The academy names five other coach educators, each holding the ICF PCC or MCC credential.
EZRA is a digital coaching platform set up in 2019 and now part of LHH and The Adecco Group, with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago and Toronto.
It sells one-to-one coaching to employers through three programmes. EZRA Edge, for mid-level to senior leaders, gives unlimited coaching with coaches holding the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential, and runs for 6 months as standard with 3, 9 and 12-month options. Focus by EZRA is an 8-week programme of three coaching sessions for managers and individual contributors, supported between sessions by Cai, an artificial intelligence (AI) coaching assistant. EZRAx is unlimited executive coaching for senior leaders and C-suite executives with Professional Certified Coach (PCC) coaches, in sessions of 30, 60 or 90 minutes. Coaching is virtual, and progress is tracked with its EZRA Measure assessments.
Prices are not published and depend on the programme, number of participants and duration. EZRA states that it has more than 2,000 ICF-accredited coaches and that its EZRA Academy is ICF accredited for Level 1 and Level 2 coach training. Its site reports a Guinness World Records title, shared with Microsoft, for the most people to complete a business coaching programme in one year, after coaching 4,816 Microsoft employees. Published case studies include Kraft Heinz, McDonald's and Nestlé.
ICF Level 1, 2
London, United KingdomNo Google or Trustpilot reviews
Firework Coaching is a career change coach training provider in Covent Garden, London, founded in 2004 and part of Careershifters since 2013.
Its main course, the Firework Career Coach Training, is an advanced programme for existing coaches who want to help clients change career. It runs online over six months. Three live half-day sessions come first, followed by an expert session, two group mentoring calls and two marketing sessions. Cohorts of 12 to 16 start three times a year, usually in March, June and November, and applicants need at least 50 hours of coaching experience. Graduates get a lifelong licence to use the Firework framework and white-labelled tools with their own clients.
The standard fee is £2,995, including VAT where it applies, with an early-bird fee of £2,895 and monthly payment plans. Firework states the course is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and carries 19 Continuing Coach Education Units (CCEUs). It reports more than 700 licensed coaches worldwide and runs the Career Coach Circle, an invite-only community for career coaches. Its parent company, Careershifters Limited, has been a certified B Corporation (B Corp) since 2017.
