Training Counsellors in Education

The need for skilled staff to implement counselling and vocational guidance in education has led to various training seminars being organized.

The first secondary education teacher training seminars were held in 1978 and 1979. They were organized by the Ministry of Education and the Greek Manpower Employment Organization with experts from other countries participating as instructors.

During the 1979-1980 school year, 13 teachers were sent abroad to attend a special course in counselling and vocational training lasting 9 months. This effort continued until the 1982-1983 school year.

During the years 1983-1986, 5-month long training seminars were held attended by 420 teachers. These seminars were organized by the Pedagogical Institute in cooperation with the Athens Technological Educational Institute.

Following on from this, between 1994 and 1995, 5-day long counselling and vocational guidance seminars were attended by 2000 teachers in various towns around Greece. Responsibility for organizing and running these seminars lay with the Ministry of Education, the Pedagogical Institute and the Organization for Vocational Education and Training (O.E.E.K.).

Between 1998 and 2000, as part of the Education and Initial Vocational Training Operational Programme I, in order to staff the Career and Counselling Centres, training was provided to: a) 120 teachers as Educational Vocational Guidance Counsellors via a one-year post-graduate diploma course in counselling and vocational guidance, and b) 78 teachers as Information and Documentation Experts via a 6-month training course focused on the collection, dissemination and documentation of information. Moreover, in order to implement vocational guidance at school level, the Ministry of Education provided 6-month training to 400 full-time secondary level education teachers in counselling and educational vocational guidance. These teachers - educational vocational guidance counsellors - were used to staff the 200 School Career Counselling Offices at school level and to provide vocational guidance at schools where no such office exists.

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