Can I Retrain as a Life Coach While Working Full Time?
Here’s a question I get asked a lot. Someone has spent years – sometimes decades – in a career that pays the bills but doesn’t light them up anymore. They’ve discovered coaching, they’re intrigued, they can see themselves doing it. And then comes the practical question that stops so many people in their tracks.
Can I actually do this while I’m still working?
The honest answer is yes. And I’m going to tell you exactly how.
The Retraining Myth
There’s a persistent idea that retraining for a new career means stepping away from your current one. Taking a sabbatical. Going back to full-time study. Putting your income on hold while you invest in something new.
For some qualifications that might be true. For life coach training – particularly the kind we offer at Pure Coaching Academy – it really isn’t.
The whole point of our 8-week intensive online course is that it fits around your life, not the other way around.
How Our Course Works Around a Full-Time Job
The Pure Coaching Academy course runs entirely online via Zoom. You have two schedule options:
Saturdays with me, Carole Ann Rice, from 10am to 3pm GMT. Fridays with Natalie Watkins, from 10am to 3pm CET / 9am to 2pm GMT.
That’s one day a week for 8 weeks. Not a year. Not a semester. Eight Saturdays or eight Fridays – and you’re qualified.
Most of our students are working full time when they start. Teachers, HR professionals, healthcare workers, business owners, people in corporate careers who have spent years helping colleagues and quietly wondering if there’s a way to do that professionally. They don’t give up their jobs to train with us. They train on the weekend or take a day’s annual leave, and they keep their income intact while they build towards something new.
What About the Work Between Sessions?
This is the question people don’t always think to ask. Yes, the live sessions are one day a week – but what about everything else?
Our course is deliberately designed to be intensive during sessions rather than heavy on homework between them. You won’t be spending your evenings buried in reading lists or writing lengthy assignments. The learning happens in the room – through real coaching conversations, practical exercises and peer feedback.
That said, you will get the most out of the course if you can find a little time each week to reflect on what you’ve learned and practise with your coaching buddy. An hour or two at most. Nothing that should derail your working week.
But What If I Can’t Make Every Session?
Life happens. We understand that. If you have an unavoidable clash on one of your eight sessions, speak to us – we’ll do what we can to support you. Our cohorts are small and the relationship between trainer and student is personal, not institutional.
That said, because the course is intensive and experiential rather than textbook-based, being present for as many sessions as possible really does matter. This isn’t a course where you can catch up by reading the slides. The learning comes from doing.
Is This the Right Time?
There’s rarely a perfect time to retrain. There will always be a reason to wait – a busy period at work, a family commitment, a financial concern. I know because I hear them all.
But here’s what I also know after 25 years of coaching: the people who wait for the perfect moment rarely find it. The people who decide the time is now – even when it’s imperfect – are the ones who look back a year later and wonder why they waited so long.
Natalie Watkins, who trains our Friday students and has been coaching for over 20 years, made her own career change while juggling a demanding corporate finance role. She knows exactly what it takes to move towards something new while keeping the rest of your life running.
What Happens When You Qualify?
This is where it gets exciting. Because unlike a year-long academic programme, 8 weeks is a short enough commitment that you can start building your coaching practice while you’re still in your current job.
Many of our graduates begin coaching clients – often friends, colleagues or people in their existing network – before they’ve even decided whether to go full-time with coaching. Some build a thriving side income alongside their existing career. Some eventually make the leap to coaching full time. Some find that coaching makes them better at the job they already have.
There’s no one right path. But having the qualification opens all of them.
Ready to Find Out More?
If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll look into this when things calm down at work – this might be your sign that now is the time.
Our next intake starts in October, with Saturday sessions with me and Friday sessions with Natalie. Download our free guide, 5 Essential Tips for New and Aspiring Coaches, and take the first step towards finding out whether this could be the right move for you.
It all begins with you.
