Certificate of Career Counselling

Unit 1 – Introduction: Scope and Nature of the Industry

• What is career counselling?
• Listening to person’s story
• Clarifying goals assisting with the decision-making process
• Helping people
• What to be aware of
• Employment options
• Services offered in the employment industry
• Services offered in the employment industry
• Assumptions underlying the practice of careers counselling
• What factors can affect a person’s career choice?
• Family factors
• Training and qualifications
• Career decision making
• Returning to work
• Cross cultural careers counselling
• Career myths

Unit 2 – Nature of Careers

• The world of work
• Elements of career building and job seeking
• Do you know yourself?
• Do you know the industry?
• Are you physically and mentally capable?
• Physical suitability
• Mental suitability
• Money, security or passion?
• Self-employed or working for someone else?
• Are you suited to working for yourself?
• Job seeking
• Factors contributing to career success
• Realistic expectations
• Changes that can occur
• A Range of Options
• Persistence (Staying in the game)
• Job Opportunities

Unit 3 – Careers Advice Resources

• Physical resources available which support careers
• Employer considerations
• Formal qualifications
• Work experience
• Published works
• Personality
• Age
• Adaptability
• Length of involvement with the field
• Productivity
• General knowledge of the field
• Some points to keep in mind regarding employer requirements
• Evaluate a qualification according to the following questions:
• Experience is valued
• Career case study – landscape gardener

Unit 4 – Careers Services

• Careers counselling services
• Careers/vocational guidance
• Careers/vocational planning
• Set goals and objectives
• Creating an action plan
• Goals and objectives
• Forecast and timetable
• Setting goals
• Creating your action plan template
• Job-seeking support
• Job-seeking strategies that work
• Where clients can find career assistance
• Career case study – Consultant
  • Description
  • Opportunities
  • Risks and challenges
  • How to become a consultant
  • Four keys to consulting success
• Career case study – Wildlife Officer
  • Description
  • Job opportunities in wildlife education
  • Risks and challenges
  • Where could you work?
  • How to become a wildlife officer
  • Companies or individuals

Unit 5 – Developing Counselling Skills

• Key areas of careers counselling
• Helping clients focus on reality
• Helping clients identify their strengths and weaknesses
• Helping clients identify opportunities
• Helping clients consider all elements
• Overcoming resistance from clients
• Listening skills
• Basic guidelines to active listening
• Questioning skills
• Open-ended questions
• Closed-ended questions
• Probing questions
• Problem-solving skills
• Withhold judgement
• Identify the problem
• Establish the desire to solve the problem
• Possible strategies
• Select the best possible option
• Essential reality checks
• Attribution theory
• External locus of control
• Internal locus of control
• Assessing probable cause – realistic attribution
• Improving clients’ predictive ability

Unit 6 – Conducting a Careers Counselling Session

• Plan and execute an effective counselling session
• Strategies to develop trust and empower clients
• Neurodiversity
• Preparing for interviews – neurodiverse individuals
• Individuals who know what job they want
• Psychometric testing for individuals still choosing a career
• What is a psychological assessment?
  • Types of psychological tests
  • Achievement tests
  • Aptitude tests
  • Intelligence tests
  • Neuropsychological tests
• Personality tests
• Referring people elsewhere
• A first-session template

Unit 7 – Counselling Students and School Leavers

• Understanding youth
• Careers counselling for adolescents
• Assisting teenagers and young people who are undecided about their future direction
• Careers counselling for students
• Giving advice on studying
• Deciding what and how much to study
• Choosing a course
• Workshops for students
• Workshops specifically for university students
• Resources for counselling students
• Graduate destinations surveys
• Vocational testing

Unit 8 – Counselling Adults

• Identifying adult needs
• The training programme
• Advice and support during job hunting
• Targeting potential employment opportunities
• Marketing oneself more effectively
• Helping employed individuals to isolate problems
• Major career or workplace problems
• Course of action
• Career change
• Easiest paths to career change
• The most challenging path to career change
• Focus on identifying transferable skills
• Emphasise your skills, knowledge and personal qualities to prospective employers.
• Starting a business
• The priority – to find out as much as possible about any potential business.
  • Don’t rush
  • Offer a product or service which is relatively unique
  • Use the skills & expertise the client has or obtain new skills
  • Get the advertising right
  • Get their prices and costs right
  • Be prepared to put in more than the client get backs (initially)
  • Give the highest priority to the customer
  • Diversify as soon as possible – but not too much
  • Don’t become big just for the sake of being big
  • Take care of staff and yourself
• Legal obligations
• Business insurance
• Writing a business plan
• Swot analysis
• The role of the careers counsellor with new businesses

Unit 9 – Job Prospecting

• Ways of finding work
• Prospecting for work
• Prospecting with letters
• Example of a letter
• Tips on getting and keeping ajob
• Understanding the client’s chosen industry
• Key skills/attributes
• Telephone manner
• Writing resumes
• Highlight soft skills on your cv or resume
  • Self-management
  • Digital skills
  • Problem solving
  • Critical thinking
• Preparing for a job interview

Unit 10 – Nurturing and growing a career

• Getting a job is only the first step in a career
• Case study – a career in hotel management
  • Scope of the hotel industry
  • Typical jobs or career paths
  • Tasks that are required
  • Employers
• Remuneration and advancement
  • Stress rating
  • How to distinguish themselves from the competition
• Legal considerations
• Advising clients on how to get job promotion
• Be hardworking
• Be pleasant
• Be indispensable
• Be enthusiastic