Considering a career in counselling? Here’s what you need to know

Are you considering a career in university counselling? If so, there are initial questions you may have to ask yourself to assess if your educational and professional background prepare you for this role.

You may also wonder how to begin to network within the international admissions and international school community, and how to gain additional experience to build up skills.

What types of counselling jobs are there?

In international schools, university counselling may be a specific job, or it may include both university advising and social and emotional counselling. This article will focus specifically on university counselling, as more specific educational training or certification is likely to be required for roles that include social-emotional work.

At an international school, university counsellors may work full-time, while in others a university counsellor may be a part-time position, or may be paired with teaching or administrative responsibilities.

What skills are valuable?

If you do not have a formal educational or professional background in counselling or university admissions, you may still have strong transferable skills relevant to working as a university adviser.

University counselling requires a mix of people skills, such as coaching, empathetic listening and drawing out students’ strengths and interests, as well as administrative and management skills, such as creating, checking and tracking paperwork, monitoring deadlines, coordinating with teachers, sending communications to students and families, and collecting and analysing data on applications and admissions.

Previous work with higher education, particularly with UK and US universities, or at secondary level is desirable. Students at international schools may apply to universities in a range of countries, but don’t feel you need to be an expert in multiple systems from the start.

Where do I go for additional training?

There are formal graduate degree or certificate programmes, such as the UCLA Extension College Counselling Certificate or the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Certificate in International College Advising. Certificate programmes are often costly, and may take months or years to complete – but they are often structured for working professionals.

If you are coming from university admissions, teaching or a related educational field, many international schools value your knowledge and experience and will train you on the job. This was my professional path when I began as a university counsellor at an international school, after many years managing international scholarship and exchange programmes at a large non-profit organisation.

In such situations, it is often trial by fire. You will need to be proactive and seek information from your colleagues, in order to learn school systems and processes. Reaching out to the network of fellow counsellors at other schools can also be an important lifeline.

Join professional organisations such as International ACAC or NACAC or IC3 to have access to their professional-development offerings. And, of course, take advantage of the free resources and training available through THE Counsellor Accreditation Programme.

Another creative way to find free training is to connect with organisations that support schools and universities, such as Bridge U, the College Board or Ucas. Many of these groups offer free public webinars. Use your LinkedIn profile to follow them or sign up for their mailing lists.

Where do I find jobs?

Finding international school openings requires a multi-pronged approach. Large global sites, including Tes, Search Associates or professional-group job boards (for example, the International ACAC job board) are good places to start.

If you want to work in a specific location, check individual school websites, or websites of educational groups such as Nord Anglia Education or United World Colleges, which run networks of schools. And there are still in-person job fairs, including Global Recruitment Collaborative (GRC).

A final note…

There are some myths to debunk about what qualifications prepare you for counselling. Graduating from a well-known university is nice for bragging rights, but does not give you specific professional counselling knowledge. Being from a popular university destination country – for example, being an American advising on US admissions – brings the benefit of some cultural understanding, but does not mean that you have proven ability to help students find their best-fit universities.