The European Coaching Institute, one of Europe’s leading accreditation organizations for coaches and coach-training providers, is proud to announce it is currently operating in 74 countries. Announcing this in a press release Mr. Gerard O’Donovan the current CEO of the ECI said that the Institute’s main objective is to continue to expand and promote best coaching practice.  As an internationally focused coaching institute, the ECI strives to raise awareness of professional coaching standards by developing contacts in new countries where the services can be launched. Mr. O’Donovan said that the ECI will bring the same quality of life coach training to every country where it operates. 

The initial coaching courses will be provided by coaches from the headquarters in London.  These highly experienced and skilled coaches will help to create a team of trained coaches in each new country, who can take the coaching activities forward. This model has been successfully adopted by the ECI in many countries.  Mr. O’Donovan said that coaches and other personnel from the Institute’s headquarters often visit the ECI centers in different countries to ensure that the high professional standards of the ECI are maintained.   

The ECI is committed to getting the profession of coaching accredited and regulated at national and international levels. To achieve this objective it has set-up standards and accreditation levels which will be maintained across all centers. There are five levels of accreditations which can be attained by the coaches in different stages. The training materials available for each accreditation level are certified by the Institute’s headquarters in London. 

In countries where English is not the primary language, the ECI has translated the training material into the local language. This has benefited many people who are interested in life coaching but not fluent in English. This step has been appreciated in many countries, such as Poland and Romania.

The ECI has also created an international register of accredited coaches. This database is open to clients who are interested in accessing the coaching services of ECI accredited coaches. Mr. O’Donovan said that this will help life coaches to easily find assignments and also help organizations quickly find high quality life coaches for training purposes.

Mr. O’Donovan further said that in this current economic climate where people are working under stress, life coaching helps them to excel in the difficult conditions. He said that demand for life coaches has seen an upward climb in recent times. The ECI is putting extra resources across all the 74 countries where it operates to fulfill the additional demand, including new partnerships with local companies.  The ECI will continue with the same model of expansion wherever it launches new operations.  Mr. O’Donovan said that local partners are playing a major role in helping the ECI launch operations. Most of the partners are local companies who have prior experience in life coaching and consulting. This is helping them to quickly adopt the practices and standards of the ECI and implement it in the operations.

Organizations and individuals are realizing the benefits of life coaching and enrolling themselves on courses to become coaches or accessing the services of life coaches.

About ECI

The ECI formed in 1999 was formed in 1999 as a not-for-profit organization to be a force for good in coaching. It was formed by a group of professional coaches and continues to be run by them. The ECI is an internationally focused organization, building, maintaining, raising awareness and working to promote best practice while providing value added benefits to its members.