A coach has a high hourly rate. That is why working as a coach can be very attractive. Someone does not need to have any special training to work as a coach. At the same time, there are many coaches and competition is fierce. A coach often supports someone in their work by letting them reflect on their own behavior and choices. In recent years, many more coaches have been added in the Netherlands. That’s because it is an easily accessible profession. For example, training to become a psychologist takes four years and training to become a medical doctor takes no less than six. However, the coaching profession is freely accessible. People often decide to work as a coach at an older age. They are often people with a certain life experience and who are tired of the profession they worked in. There is also often a genuine desire to help others. It is not uncommon for people to come up with the idea of working as a coach after they have benefited from the guidance of a coach.
How many coaches are there?
It is not clear exactly how many coaches there are in the Netherlands. This is because coaches do not have to register anywhere. The Journal for Coaching estimated that there are around forty thousand coaches working in the Netherlands. Most coaches help people in their work. There are many ways in which the different coaches describe themselves, for example as leadership coach, team, life coach, dream coach and competence coach. The Career Management Institute (CMI) thinks that there are significantly fewer coaches, but still significantly fewer, namely fifteen thousand. More than five hundred coaches are registered with this institute. The CMI has a complete registration system. She wants to use a quality mark to indicate what suitable coaches are. At the same time, not every coach chooses to register, because there are costs involved.
How much does a coach earn?
The coaching profession does not necessarily pay very well. The hourly rate that the better coaches can ask is very high. For example, someone who guides people in the business world can charge more than a hundred euros per hour as a rate. At the same time, there are a lot of people who are happy if they can find just a few customers. There is a lot of competition and finding suitable customers also takes a lot of time. When someone decides to work as a coach, it is better to decide to do so in addition to an existing job, for example two days a week. If things turn out to be going well, you can always decide to work as a coach more days a week. It is also important that a coach also finds enough free time. If this does not happen, someone also becomes less sharp at work, while that is a very important quality for a coach.
Working as a coach
The golden times for coaches started in 2001, when the UWV privatized the guidance of unemployed people. Social plans were very popular at the time and coaches guided people from job to job. Many career coaches were therefore hired. However, the UWV was significantly cut and also had to make cuts. The budget of 126 million was completely reduced to zero. As a result, 1,600 lost their jobs. At the same time, many more coaches continued to flood into the market, increasing the competition even more. There are also many separate courses, both for novice and advanced coaches.