Career Guidance and Counselling – Counsellor

Career Guidance and Counselling – Counsellor

Guidance and counselling help students to make decisions, select the related courses based on individual interests and talents, establish personal goals, develop educational plans. The guidance and counselling can either be given to an individual student or groups of students sharing common concerns. During the sessions students are offered an opportunity for self-knowledge and self-development, students are provided with information on learning styles and study methods as well how their attitudes, interests and study habits affect their educational opportunities, students are made aware of the many occupations to consider and decide what to do after school/college.

In order to provide effective guidance and counselling, the counsellors should have the following traits:

1. A keen ability to listen when the students/clients talk. This shows the counsellor’s interest to understand their issues in helping them solve their problems.
2. A strong sense of direction to find the best solution for students/clients
   • What to do?
   • How to do it?
   • When to do it?
3. Have the ability to develop meaningful and trusting relationships with students/clients so that they can share  all information
4. Have the ability to tell the students/clients that it is OK to have doubts and confusions and not just disagree as if the students/clients do not know anything
5. Have the ability to appreciate students/clients as a person and not belittle them
6. Be able to portray an advocacy and guidance role with a nurturing attitude by guiding students/clients  slowly and not pushing into making decisions in a rush
7. Be able to take note of and serve the interests of the students/clients and not only listen to parents/caregivers/family and teachers
8. Be more creative in developing their approaches in counselling students/clients
9. Have the ability to propose solutions to students/clients by taking into consideration the following:
   • Family background
   • Students/clients traits and personalities
   • Students strengths and weaknesses
   • Students thinking abilities
   • Students creativity
   • Students learning behaviours

These are some of the issues that the students/clients might be willing to share with counsellors:

1. Dilemmas about career options.
2. Which subjects should I choose or not choose?
3. What do I do after I am done with school/college?
4. I am a good student getting good grades but not knowing what to do after that.
5. I study but I am not getting good grades in all or few of the subjects.

To summarize Career/Academic counsellor should be:

1. An advisor
2. An information provider especially within the realm of career counselling and academic advising
3. A catalyst to facilitate change
4. A confidante
5. An effective planner to help students/clients establish personal goals and develop plans
6. A consultant to parents
7. A provider or a referrer of responsive services, including effective interventions to help students/clients cope with the stress of being a teenager or young adult
8. A provider of an effective support system, not only to the students/clients but also to the whole learning community