Professional Guidance Counsellor Education

Become a Bettermaker– Get a guidance counsellor’s qualification!

In HAMK’s Professional Guidance Counsellor Education programme, you study flexibly online. The programme provides you with a broad foundation and qualification to work in study and career counselling across various educational fields. The programme is a continuing education programme for teachers, particularly aimed at those working in vocational institutions and universities of applied sciences.

During the studies, you will build your own guidance counsellor identity and expand your professional skills as a guidance counsellor. You will learn to examine, assess, and develop study and career counselling, and to work within national and international networks. Throughout the programme, you will develop your own counselling framework, which you will reflect on in relation to your counselling expertise and society.

The Professional Guidance Counsellor Education programme takes approximately 13 months to complete. You can study and work at the same time, or you may study full-time if you prefer. The programme has 1-2 days per month when lectures take place online. In addition to the lectures, the programme includes independent and group work.

Objective

Becoming a guidance counsellor starts with continuous professional growth. Your background and experience as a teacher will gradually develop into counselling skills. During the studies, you will build a framework for guidance and counselling, helping you examine the key questions in study and career counselling and apply them to your work as a guidance counsellor. You will also gain skills that support lifelong learning and the development of your counselling competence in culturally and linguistically diverse environments.

Career opportunities

Professional guidance counsellor education graduates typically find employment in expert roles related to study and career counselling within educational institutions. As a guidance counsellor, you can also work in career counselling specialist roles or in human resources and development positions, including in the corporate sector. The education equips you with counselling skills suited for various roles in the education and employment sectors.