Careers Counselling

DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE - LEARN CAREERS COUNSELLING AT HOME FOR A NEW CAREER

 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.

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.

Career Counselling is also a valuable addition to your teaching, counselling, management, life-coaching, or community services qualification. It can improve parents' ability to help their children choose suitable career paths, or student's ability to plan their own career or career change.

"In the modern day, many people do not have a “job for life”. People change jobs and retrain throughout their lives. This course considers how we support people leaving school, college and university to decide on their future, find jobs, undertake training and so on. But also how we support the adult who wishes to retrain, return to work after maternity leave or redundancy. This course provides students with an interesting career option in the current economic climate." Tracey Jones, B.Sc. (Hons) (Psychology), M.Soc.Sc (social work), DipSW (social work), PGCE (Education), PGD (Learning Disability Studies), ACS Tutor

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction ...Scope & Nature of the Industry
   • Definitions: career, careers counselling, counselling
   • Broad employment options
   • Services offered in the employment industry
   • Assmptions about career counselling practices
   • Cross cultural careers counselling
2. Nature of Careers ...What is a career, what makes it successful?
   • Introduction
   • Elements of career building and job seeking
   • Factors contributing to career success
   • Realistic expectations
   • Range of options
   • Persistence
   • Case study
3. Careers Advice Resources ...Brochures, Publications, Web Sites
   • Employer considerations: qualifications, experience,personality, age, adaptability, productivity, etc
   • Case study
4. Career Services ....Where can people get help (Social Services, Work Experience, Education)
   • Career counselling services
   • Careers and vocational guidence
   • Vocational planning
   • Setting goals
   • Job seeking supportJob seeking strategies
   • Other services
5. Developing Counselling Skills
   • Key areas for career counselling
   • Helping clients focus on reality
   • Helping clients identify opportunities
   • Helping clients consider all elements
   • Overcoming resistance from clients
   • Listening skills
   • Questioning skills
   • Problem solving skills
   • Essential reality checks
   • Improving clients predictive ability
6. Conducting a Counselling Session
   • Why people come to a career counsellor
   • Strategies to develop trust
   • A career counselling session
   • Individuals who know the job they want
   • Psychometric testing for individuals still choosing a career
   • Types of psychological tests that may be used
   • Referring people elsewhere
7. Counselling Students and School Leavers (with little work experience)
   • Understanding youth
   • Career counselling for adolescents
   • Assisting indecisive teenagers
   • Career counselling for students
   • Giving advice on study
   • Choosing a course
   • Workshops for students
   • Workshops for university students
   • Resources for counselling students
8. Counselling Adults (inexperienced or facing career change)
   • Identifying adult needs The training program
   • Advice and support during job hunting
   • Course of action
   • Career changing
   • Easiest paths to career change
   • Challenging path to career change
   • Starting a business
   • Case study
   • Writing a business plan
9. Job Prospecting
   • Ways of finding work
   • Supporting clients decisions
   • Prospecting for work
   • Tips on getting a job
   • Writing resumes (CV's)
   • Preparing for a job interview
10. Nurturing and growing a career once it has started
    • Getting a job is only the first step in a career
    • Self management for business people
    • Marketing and pricing
    • Case study
    • Advising clients about career advancement

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

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.

What You Will Do

• 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.

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. What about –

Sports Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Sports-Psychology-292.aspx

Certificate in Life Coaching

http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Certificate-In-Life-Coaching-224.aspx

Life Coaching http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Life-Coaching-33.aspx

Relationship and Communications Counselling http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Relationships-Communication-Counselling-357.aspx

Or are you interested in how psychology relates to business, why not try –

Psychological Assessment http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Psychological-Assessment-379.aspx

Careers Counselling http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Careers-Counselling-344.aspx

Stress Management http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Stress-Management-295.aspx

Marketing Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Marketing-Psychology-314.aspx

Industrial Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Industrial-Psychology-290.aspx

Multicultural Awareness http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Multi-Cultural-Awareness-369.aspx

Social Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Social-Psychology-I-345.aspx

Or if you are not sure if psychology is for you, why not try our Introduction to Psychology - http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=359

If you would like to see our range of psychology books, please visit - http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

For more information on the range of careers available in psychology, have a look at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14

We have some interesting articles on psychology and counseling at - http://www.acs.edu.au/psychol/

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