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How to become Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor in 2024

Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor Advise and assist students and provide educational and vocational guidance services.

Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor is Also Know as

In different settings, Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor is titled as

  • Academic Advisor
  • Academic Counselor
  • Admissions Counselor
  • Career Counselor
  • College Counselor
  • Guidance Counselor
  • School Adjustment Counselor
  • School Counselor
  • Student Development Advisor
  • Student Services Coordinator

Education and Training of Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

Training Required for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor in different industries are

What Do Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor do?

  • Counsel individuals to help them understand and overcome personal, social, or behavioral problems affecting their educational or vocational situations.
  • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
  • Provide crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools.
  • Prepare students for later educational experiences by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
  • Provide students with information on topics such as college degree programs and admission requirements, financial aid opportunities, trade and technical schools, and apprenticeship programs.
  • Teach classes and present self-help or information sessions on subjects related to education and career planning.
  • Conduct follow-up interviews with counselees to determine if their needs have been met.
  • Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
  • Plan and conduct orientation programs and group conferences to promote the adjustment of individuals to new life experiences, such as starting college.
  • Assess needs for assistance, such as rehabilitation, financial aid, or additional vocational training, and refer clients to the appropriate services.
  • Instruct individuals in career development techniques, such as job search and application strategies, resume writing, and interview skills.
  • Address community groups, faculty, and staff members to explain available counseling services.
  • Compile and study occupational, educational, and economic information to assist counselees in determining and carrying out vocational and educational objectives.
  • Provide information for teachers and staff members involved in helping students or graduates identify and pursue employment opportunities.
  • Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements, and write letters of recommendation.
  • Refer students to degree programs based on interests, aptitudes, or educational assessments.
  • Provide special services such as alcohol and drug prevention programs and classes that teach students to handle conflicts without resorting to violence.
  • Provide disabled students with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
  • Interview clients to obtain information about employment history, educational background, and career goals, and to identify barriers to employment.
  • Establish and supervise peer-counseling and peer-tutoring programs.
  • Refer qualified counselees to employers or employment services for job placement.
  • Sponsor extracurricular activities, such as clubs, student organizations, and academic contests.
  • Confer with parents or guardians, teachers, administrators, and other professionals to discuss children's progress, resolve behavioral, academic, and other problems, and to determine priorities for students and their resource needs.
  • Evaluate students' or individuals' abilities, interests, and personality characteristics, using tests, records, interviews, or professional sources.
  • Identify cases of domestic abuse or other family problems and encourage students or parents to seek additional assistance from mental health professionals.
  • Counsel students regarding educational issues, such as course and program selection, class scheduling and registration, school adjustment, truancy, study habits, and career planning.
  • Collaborate with teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of school programs and in the preparation of master schedules for curriculum offerings.
  • Observe students during classroom and play activities to evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
  • Attend meetings, educational conferences, and training workshops, and serve on committees.
  • Plan and promote career and employment-related programs and events, such as career planning presentations, work experience programs, job fairs, and career workshops.
  • Establish and enforce administration policies and rules governing student behavior.
  • Establish contacts with employers to create internship and employment opportunities for students.
  • Plan, direct, and participate in recruitment and enrollment activities.
  • Supervise, train, and direct professional staff and interns.

Qualities of Good Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.

Tools Used by Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

  • Audio recorders
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital video disk DVD players
  • Laptop computers
  • Liquid crystal display LCD projectors
  • Overhead display projectors
  • Personal computers
  • Personal digital assistants PDA
  • Photocopying equipment
  • Projection equipment
  • Video cassette recorders VCR
  • Video recorders
  • Videoconferencing equipment
  • Yahoo! Messenger

Technology Skills required for Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisor

  • ACT Discover
  • ACT WorkKeys
  • Adobe ActionScript
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Athena Software Penelope Case Management
  • Blackbaud The Raiser's Edge
  • Blackboard software
  • Blackboard Wimba
  • Bloomz
  • Career Cruising
  • Career decision-making programs
  • Career Dimensions Focus 2
  • Career management systems CMS
  • Career Zone
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC WONDER
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epi Info
  • Chat software
  • Coin Educational Products Climb K-5 Online
  • Coin Educational Products Coin Jr.
  • College Central Network Career Services Central
  • Common Curriculum
  • Computer-assisted career guidance software
  • Computer-assisted live supervision
  • Computerized diagnostic programs
  • Computerized statistical packages
  • Computerized testing programs
  • Counseling software
  • Database application software
  • Database software
  • Email software
  • Ext JS
  • EZAnalyze
  • Facebook
  • FileMaker Pro
  • Google Classroom
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drive
  • Google Meet
  • GroupMe
  • Healthcare common procedure coding system HCPCS
  • Instant messaging software
  • Intrado SchoolMessenger
  • Kuder Navigator
  • LexisNexis
  • LinkedIn
  • LogMeIn GoToMeeting
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRS
  • Microsoft Word
  • Moodle
  • Naviance Succeed
  • O*NET OnLine
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Oracle Taleo
  • Orbius
  • Padlet
  • Palm Pal Transana
  • Prezi
  • Productivity software
  • Schoology
  • Screencastify
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Social Solutions ETO
  • Student information systems SIS software
  • Web browser software
  • Web page design and editing software
  • Word processing software
  • Yahoo! Email
  • Zoomerang