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The Role of the Guidance Counsellor
Currently the world is overwhelmed by torrential changes, uncertainty and instability. In this context the role of the Guidance Counsellor is to mobilize the individual for personal and vocational development.
The tasks of the Guidance Counsellor are summed up as follows:
- to organize and provide information with respect to education and vocation opportunities
- to help and reinforce an individual in developing a positive self-concept
- to facilitate the process of decision-making
- career design (following assessment of above)
- care for the transition, placement and follow-up of targeted individuals
- re-orientation of individuals
The Guidance Counsellor provides Counselling and Vocational Guidance either on an individual or group basis. Where the Counsellor’s tasks are discharged in the context of schools and target students, the relevant activities are classified as “School Career Counselling”. In this case emphasis is placed on the psycho-educational dimensions of the institution of Counselling and Vocational Guidance with the aim to help develop the students’ personality, increase the students’ awareness of education and vocation pathways and help them focus on specific vocations and values to make a final choice.
With respect to Employment, the tasks of the Counsellor are referred to as “Counselling & Vocational Orientation in Employment” and focus on:
a) the provision of information pertaining to education and employment
b) counselling the young or adults on an individual basis for re-inclusion in the labour market, and
c) counselling on a group basis (Reinforcement - Job-search skills) with the aim to effectively leverage the return of beneficiaries to active life.
Irrespective of the area (Education - Employment) discharging his/her tasks, the Guidance Counsellor endeavors to ensure that targeted individuals or groups make a smooth transition from the stages outlined above so that the beneficiaries’ progress in education and vocational/professional choices and development are effective and successful.
Information
This represents a major task for the Guidance Counsellor who organizes and disseminates information so that targeted individuals acquire comprehensive knowledge of the educational and vocational environment in a systematic way. This organization of information involves a process of search, processing and selection of the information material about opportunities in education and related terms and conditions for accessing them, on the one hand, and information about job opportunities, lists and details of professions / occupations on a national and international level, on the other hand. This task requires a subtle critical approach from the part of the Counsellor, as the deliverable information ought to be reliable, current, accurate and easy to understand by the targeted individuals.
Self-knowledge - Positive self-concept
This refers to a process aiming to support an individual on a psychological level, help him/her understand his/her personality, capabilities and skills, tendencies and talents, interests and ambitions. This process was adopted as an appreciation to the critical role of positive self-concept to social, educational/training and vocational choices made by an individual, which ultimately determines his/her way of life. Through this counselling process and the use of proper psychotechnical tools, the targeted individual is expected to form a positive self-concept and, be reviewing his/her vocational expectations, take informed and responsible decisions pertaining to his/her career.
Decision-making process
This is a complex, step-wise developmental process which leads to efficient and mature decision-making with respect to educational and vocational choices through the development of personal skills. This decision-making process follows a prescribed course of action involving target-setting, collection of pertinent information, consideration-evaluation of alternatives, and arrangement of findings/results for working out the best possible solution-choice. There are many factors affecting a person’s vocational choices, i.e.: a) personal values / priorities, b) desires and expectations, c) gender (male vs. female), d) environment (i.e. family or society in general), e) labour market characteristics (space & time references), etc. In conclusion, timely and reliable information offers individuals the opportunity to make informed choices about their career.
Transition
This term denotes a series of changes and processes that are required for the passage from one status (educational or vocational) to another. This change is usually associated with a number of obstacles that need to be overcome or “hurdled” in order for the individual to pass to a higher status or condition in a smooth way.
With respect to Education, the concept refers to the change over from one educational level to the next up - for example, the passing from primary education to secondary education, and from there to a Unified Lyceum or a Technical Vocational School. The same holds for passing over from secondary education to tertiary education. The same concept includes the notion of mobility, as when transferring from one school to another, within or without the country.
With respect to Employment, the term refers to the passing over from education / training to the labour market and employment, from employment to unemployment, to different work environments and/or skills.
For the Guidance Counsellor, transition is an issue of critical importance. It aims to sensitize, inform and, mainly prepare the individual to meet new conditions in life and workplace. This involves psychological support (reinforcement) aiming to support smooth transition in the face of difficulties.
Placement
This term refers to efforts orchestrated to assist the individual enter and adapt successfully to a new educational or vocational environment.
In the context of Education, placement refers to one’s allocation to a specific field of study or program/module in one school or another irrespective of the level of education, country (as in the case of student exchange programmes).
With respect to Employment, placement refers to the process of acceding a specific job post for which the individual manifests competence both at initial job search and in the phase of transition to different work environments. Placement is a dynamic process during which an individual, having mastered various job search techniques and through self-action, endeavours to identify educational/training and vocational opportunities. This process can also be mediated by the Guidance Counselor.
Follow-up
This refers to actions taken by the Guidance Counsellor with the aim to establish the progress, consequences and results of guidance provided. It may be considered expedient the review, redesign or adjust the process of guidance. In addition, the follow-up process is a means of assessing the efficiency of the counselling services provided.
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