The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

If you are not going for ICF accreditation, then any school/course which provides effective training may suit you.

However, if accreditation is or will be important to you, you are looking for one of two types of schools:

1. A school, which the ICF calls an ACTP, which means it has the ICF official “stamp”, or

2. A school whose training is “aligned with the ICF requirements” – also known as the “Portfolio Track” to accreditation. (To be “aligned” the training must be coaching specific, be aligned with the eight training competencies specified by the ICF, and provide at least 125 training hours, of which at least 100 are face-to-face or teleclass training.)

What is the difference? The ICF has made it clear that neither path is easier – you jump through the same amount of hoops, regardless of which path you choose.  Choosing an ACTP means you have most of the hoops in the same place, although understandably it comes with a higher price tag.

A word of caution: if your school does not mention the ICF, or specifically that it either has an ACTP or that it meets the requirements of the Portfolio Track to ICF accreditation, there’s a 99% chance it doesn’t.