Financial coaching is a promising approach to helping individuals work towards their financial goals, but the availability of coaching is limited. In order to expand the public’s access to financial coaching, the University of Wisconsin-Extension started training new coaches in 2010.  The training workshops are open to anyone interested in coaching.

This brief provides an overview of the Financial Coaching Workshops and the implementation methods used and summarizes interviews with 42 individuals who attended the first three UW-Extension coaching training workshops.
 

Summary:  The majority of respondents started coaching others or integrated coaching techniques into other lines of work after the workshops. A few workshop participants had created large-scale coaching programs, often by using what they learned in the workshops to create in-house coaching trainings within their organizations. Thus, UW-Extension’s coaching trainings have led to a significant expansion of financial coaching in Wisconsin. A majority of respondents also reported that they would like to do more coaching, but many were prevented from doing so due to time constraints and difficulties in recruiting clients. In general, respondents preferred low touch methods such as conference calls and webinars to continue learning about coaching and networking following the workshops.

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