Careers Counselling |
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| Course Code | BPS202 |
|---|---|
| Fee Code | S3 |
| Number of Assignments | 10 |
| Duration (approx) | 100 hours |
Learn more about the employment industry and about ways to help others (or yourself) develop and pursue a career path that is both achievable and appropriate.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The course contains ten lessons, as follows:
- Introduction – Scope and Nature of Careers Counselling
- Nature of Careers – What is a career, what makes it successful
- Careers Advice Resources – Brochures, Publications, Web Sites
- Services – Where can people get help (Social Services, Work Experience, Education)
- Developing Counselling Skills
- Conducting a Counselling Session
- Counselling Students and School Leavers
- Counselling Adults (inexperienced or facing career change)
- Job Prospecting – How to find work…resumes, etc
- Nurturing and Growing a career once it has started
AIMS
- Identify people and organisations that offer career advice or support and the services they offer.
- Distinguish successful from unsuccessful careers, and prepare for anticipated changes in the workplace.
- Develop skills that will enhance your ability to guide others in the establishment or development of a career.
- Plan and execute an effective counselling session
- Explain strategies for dealing with the needs of inexperienced young people.
- Identify and meet the needs of inexperienced adults or those facing career change.
- Explain how and where to find employment in the job market.
- Describe the need to nurture and grow a career and plan for change.
- Undertake research into the scope and nature of employment services and service providers in your region or locality
- Research a career area to identify the kind of work involved, requirements, who offers it, trends etc
- Role play a counselling session to practise and evaluate your skills in helping a client with an issue
- Conduct research to improve your understanding of what careers counselling entails
- Plan a careers counselling session, including the session goal, timeframe, and anticipated issues
- Discuss career concerns with young people who are leaving or have recently left secondary school
- Discuss with adults their experiences of career change
- Plan strategies to assist young and adult clients deal with common and important identified issues.
Some Sample Course Notes
Assumptions Underlying the Practice of Careers Counselling
Careers counselling has a number of underlying assumptions, which should be considered when supporting clients –
1. People have the ability and opportunity to make careers choices within their lives. The amount of freedom of choice will depend on their economic, social and cultural context.
2. Individuals are presented with careers choices throughout their lives.
3. Opportunities should be available to people regardless of their disability, sexual orientation, age, cultural background, gender or religion.
4. People will have a wide range of work roles during their lives. These include paid and unpaid work.
5. Careers counsellors support people to explore, pursue and attain their career goals.
6. Careers counselling has four main elements –
a. Helping individuals gain a greater self-awareness in areas of interests, values, personality style and abilities.
b. Connecting students to resources so they can become knowledgeable about jobs and occupations.
c. Engaging students in the decision making process, so they choose a career path well-suited to their individual needs, abilities, values and personality.
d. Assisting individuals to be active managers of their career path – such as career transitions, balancing life roles, as well as becoming life long learners to develop over their career.
7. Individuals will enter particular occupations according to personal preferences, interests, external influences etc.
8. Career decision making happens throughout a person’s life. It is an ongoing process. It doesn’t happen only once.
9. All forms of work are valuable and all contribute to the well-being of society.
Perhaps you would like to help people improve their lives through life coaching or counselling.
Starting or changing a career can be quite a challenge. Without help, a person can easily become discouraged or overwhelmed. If you want to help others (or yourself) make sound career decisions and set realistic career goals, this course will set you on that path. Careers Counselling involves more than just finding work for people.
Among other things, Careers Counselling may involve helping people:
- identify the best job for their skills and interests
- find any job to meet their personal and financial needs
- find a better or more appropriate job for their situation
- achieve job satisfaction through appropriate choices
- plan and cope with career changes
- better adapt to the workplace
- improve their potential for advancement in the workplace
- identify new career possibilities when circumstances change.
To be able to assist a person to understand:
- the diverse nature of employment opportunities
- the requirements for success in different types of jobs
- reasons that people hire and fire employees
- workplace conditions including contract law, industrial relations systems, health and safety issues, ethics- useful contacts among employers, government departments, funding bodies, professional associations, industry experts, etc
- factors that hinder or promote a person’s job-seeking effectiveness
- trends in the local job market.
A good Careers Counsellor must be impartial and objective.
Career Counselling is a valuable addition to your teaching, counselling, management, life-coaching, or community services qualification.
It can also improve parents' ability to help their children choose suitable career paths, or student's ability to plan their own career or career change. 