School Career & Guidance Counselling

Chilli Con Kearney

Hi all

I am thinking about applying to do an MSc in Career & Guidance Counselling. While the closing dates have closed in DCU, Maynooth, etc. for this coming year, I would like to undertake a part-time course in order to familiarise myself with basics, appreciate the role/importance of a counsellor, etc.

There are several around, e.g. NUI Certificate, IICP foundation, PCI foundation, etc.

Has anybody any advice and/or experience on these part-time courses? Or done one of these courses before applying for an MSc?

Any help would be much appreciated.

JuliusCaesar

Are any of these courses accredited?
Guidance counselling is quite different to counselling so why do you want to do a counselling course?
Is doing a counselling course an advantage to getting into a guidance counselling course?

learning2010

Hi
If you want to get into the Guidance and Counselling Course in DCU then you really have to have an understanding of what counselling is before you'll pass an interview. If you haven't gained this through experience i.e working in a counselling capacity then they will look for a foundation course on your cv. I can imagine it will be the same in Maynooth.
It still is guidance counselling so whilst you don't need to be a psychologist alot of the skills and techniques you learn are used. In addition to be a guidance counsellor you will also need to have done some work on your self awareness believe it or not.

The IICP in Tallaght is one of the more reasonable foundation courses and it provides a good grounding in counselling. It's very interactive, making use of learning journals and working on your awareness levels which will only hold to you in an interview for Guidance Counselling but in addition there you should get a huge amount out of it on a personal level.

Best of luck with it all

JuliusCaesar

This might be useful. Give them a ring and they'll be able to provide more useful information. For 2nd level Guidance Counselling you need a primary degree and a teaching qualification.

When I did my undergraduate degree in Psychology we shared some lectures with the PG Guidance Counselling students.

Learning2010, we tend to be a leeetle suspicious of someone with a small post count advocating any course or service. Have you any connection with the course you are recommending? And have you any grounds for recommending it in connection with Guidance Counselling? Other than both contain the word 'counselling'?

learning2010

Ya I did the IICP foundation course myself and I personally got alot out of it but everyone is different in what they get from these things.
I'm sure the other foundation courses cover alot of the same things, I don't know cause I haven't done any of the others!. After researching it initially though I thought it was the better priced also but that may have changed. I do recommending researching each one and making your own choice.

The fact is one needs to have an understanding of what counselling is to get into guidance counselling, you only have to look at the course prospectus to know this and things like listening skills and being present still apply, these are things that you learn at foundation level... but as I said above I'm sure all the foundation courses cover this not just IICP.

I replied to the thread cause I thought I was being helpful but yep I'm no expert.

Chilli Con Kearney

Hi all

Thanks for the replies. I had contacted the IICP re their foundation course before and had also looked at the NUI certificate.

I realise that neither of these are guidance counselling courses but I figured that they might provide with some basics of counselling which I thought would be important in a role as a school guidance counsellor. Both are pricey enough, at just over €1000 each, but I was hoping that they would put me in the right direction in terms of the basics.

I contacted the IGC but I have to say that they were not very helpful in pointing me in any direction at all. They knew about the PG courses (UL, NUIM, DCU, etc.) but nothing about any beginner/foundation courses, which was quite surprising and disappointing.