Coaching — The Big Boom And Status Of The Industry Today
The evolution of the coaching industry to its current state.
--
‘The Big Boom’ in Coaching
The industry experienced a massive boom worldwide across a range of sectors over the past few decades — being the second-fastest-growing sector in the world within the past 10 years.
The main reason that contributes to such rapid expansion is the fact that coaching is not regulated by any formal authority which means the bars are quite low for anyone to enter the market as there’s no previous qualification, education, or experience formally required.
Also, it’s very easy to get qualified or only self-qualify to start. Currently, there are over 500 entities that certify coaches worldwide, an expanding market itself; it’d be insightful to analyze its quality standards. The only globally recognized professional coaching certification at this point is ‘the ICF Credential’ granted by the International Coach Federation.
As the sector is so broad and unregulated, there’s no precise way to determine the number of coaches or the full extent of the industry. Finding accurate and consistent data about its global or regional growth has also proven difficult.
Nonetheless, a recent ICF report conducted by PwC suggests that global coaching market value crossed $2,4 billion in 2019 expecting to grow annually by 6% as compared to $2 billion in 2016. The estimated global total revenue from coaching in 2015 was $2.4 billion representing a 19% increase over the 2011 estimate. In the US, the market value was $1.02 billion in 2016, compared to $707 million in 2011. Interesting data, right?
A search for ‘Coaches’ world-wide over LinkedIn as of April 2020, gives over 6,280,000 results. A survey by ICF from 2009 estimated about 47,500 coaches worldwide which represent over 132 times (13,200%) growth in volume over the past decade. We also have to consider that this number is only a fraction of the full industry result as not all Coaches in practice are LinkedIn registered.
