Course Outline and Topics
Course Overview
If you aspire to work as a career guidance professional, this online career development and counselling course will give you the skills and knowledge to launch your career or start your own private practice as a career coach.
The Certificate of Career Development and Counselling is an online professional development course that will give you the confidence to assist clients with career guidance using a career development framework. This course will also teach you how to assist clients to identify their career aspirations and plan appropriate pathways to support their career development.
On completion of this course you will have the fundamental skills required to plan and access career pathways and information, analyse and apply labour market information and support clients to plan their careers across all life stages. You will also discover a range of counselling methodologies and learn how to apply specialist interpersonal and counselling skills.
Course Structure
Unit 1 - Analyse and apply information that supports employment and career development
- Information gathering
- Networking
- Industry / professional associations
- Industry information
- Government departments
- University research facilities
- Labour market information
- Copyright
- Research information
- Research skills
- Evaluate plans and practices
- Individual pathways plan
- Job search planning
- Client education and training
- Update knowledge
- Changes in economic activity
- Labour Force Surveys
- Average working hours
- Contract employment
- Portable skills
- Globalisation
- Impact of technology
- Core vocational skills
- Employment trends
- Job vacancy reporting
- Unemployment data
- Recruitment analysis
- Instigating change
Unit 2 - Deliver services consistent with a career development framework
- Client participation
- Client communication
- Career development
- Client needs and aspirations
- Clarify expectations
- Teaching clients to plan
- Client support
- Facilitate client learning
- Adult learning models
- Learning styles
- Group learning
- Establish trust
- Sharing and reflecting information
- Change management
- Building resilience
- Goal setting
- Required competencies
- Areas for development
- Stages of life
- Professional development
- Career status
- Evaluate services
- Surveys and questionnaires
Unit 3 - Conduct career guidance interviews
- Career aspirations
- Career guidance
- Client rapport
- Personality types
- Client expectations
- Questioning techniques
- Ability tests
- Career development framework
- Labour market conditions
- Career goals and options
- Work experience
- Career interests, skills
- Career assessment tools
- Employment barriers
- Job profiles
- Training requirements
- Employment opportunities
- Career objectives
- Realistic options
- SMART goals
- Exploring/creating opportunities
- Hidden job market
- Job searching
- Employment applications
- Job application mistakes
- Interview preparation
- Client action plans
- Agency referrals
- Voluntary work
Unit 4 - Provide support to people in career transition
- Career action plan
- Develop strategies
- Confirm goals
- Assess current job and skills
- Areas for development
- Training opportunities
- Highlight key skills
- Effective resume
- Ability tests
- Job interviews
- CAR structure
- Interview questions and answers
- Communication skills
- Building rapport
- Active listening
- Career action plan
- Goals
- Client progress
- Client feedback
Unit 5 - Apply specialist interpersonal and counselling interview skills
- Counselling interview sequence
- Environmental / personal factors
- Cultural considerations
- Disabilities / impairments
- Client-counsellor relationship
- Counselling skills
- Person-centred approach
- Client-centred interactions
- Establish rapport
- Empathy, honesty and openness
- Conflict resolution
- Learning styles
- Communication styles and skills
- Key objectives
- The initial session
- Structured approach
- Specialised counselling skills
- Negotiation techniques
- Promoting self-advocacy / self-care
- Coping strategies
- Responding to distress or crisis
- Self-evaluation / self-awareness
- Professional development plan
- Action learning
- Networking / professional memberships
Unit 6 - Select and use counselling therapies
- Analysing client needs
- Holistic approach
- Problem-solving techniques
- Goal setting
- Developmental status
- Piaget’s cognitive development
- Freud’s psychosexual stages of development
- Erikson’s psychosocial development
- Kohlberg’s moral development
- Individual differences
- Coexisting issues
- Normal and abnormal behaviour
- Drug use and psychological illness
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Person-Centred Therapy
- Behaviour Therapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Solution-focused therapy
- Miracle questions
- Scaling questions
- Coping questions
- Self-care plans
- Stress
- Managing re-traumatisation
- Breathing control exercises
- Managing vicarious trauma
- Personality theories
- Applying Freud
- Applying Maslow
- Applying Erikson
- The counselling process
- Client expectations
- Communication skills
- Communication barriers
- Active listening
- Effective questioning
- Reframing
- Paralanguage
- Specialised counselling techniques
- Self-advocacy
- Building resilience
- Integrative therapy
- Empathy and sympathy
- Self-reflection
- Evaluate therapies
Assessment
Written assignments and exercises, including short-answer questions, reports/essays and projects. There are no examinations or due dates for assessment.