Career As An Education Counselor

You are here because you want to learn more about your future career as an Education Counselor, correct? There are many young minds like yours who try to learn about various professions in order to choose a career path but end up feeling confused.

You might find information about the career you want to pursue but we don’t get much information about what the career of a professional looks like. 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! In this blog, we shall discuss what a career as an education counselor looks like, what you need to do, and some inspiring stories about education counselors. Read on! 

What Does An Education Counselor Do?

• An Education counselor works with students of all ages who face issues with academic, vocational, and professional success. While many youth counselors and social workers work in schools, these professionals deal with a wide range of issues. 
• They understand the obstacles to success that many students face, such as learning disabilities, a lack of motivation, language barriers, a lack of accountability, test anxiety, and a variety of other factors that prevent students from reaching their academic potential. 
• They also typically have an in-depth understanding of specific teachers, subjects, and resources available to assist students in achieving their goals.

Learn more: How to become a University Professor/ Researcher

Job Roles as an Education Counselor

If you want to know about the different options in the career as an education counselor, take a look at these job roles.

1. Career Coach: A Career Coach is a professional who understands students’ career goals and offers them suggestions and career guidance to help them achieve those goals.
2. Elementary School Counselor: An elementary school counselor is someone who is in charge of providing education advice to students in elementary schools. These professionals are also accountable for meeting with students’ parents and understanding their concerns in order to counsel them.
3. Middle School Counselor: A Middle School Counselor is the person in charge of organizing council meetings with school officials and supervising academic regulations for students. They also make improvement suggestions to the authorities in order to help students.
4. Secondary School Counselor: Secondary School Counselors are professionals who help students in secondary schools with their careers. These professionals are in charge of assisting students in selecting a career path, a higher education course, and the appropriate college.

Career Path To Become An Education Counselor

To begin your career as an education counselor, there are two paths.

Path 1:

You can complete your 10+2 in Arts with Psychology as a subject and further pursue BA in Psychology followed by a Master’s degree such as MA, M.Phil, or PGDM in the specialization of your choice, 

Path 2: 

You can complete your 10+2 in Science with Psychology as a subject and further pursue BSc in Psychology followed by a Master’s degree such as MA, MSc, M.Phil, or PGDM in the specialization of your choice, You can pursue BSc in Psychology only if you have completed 10+2 in the Science stream. 

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Salary In Different Stages Of An Education Counselor

Your career as an education counselor with experience will ensure that you have a rewarding career.

Experience	Salary
1-2 years	2-7 L
2-3 years	2-8 L
3-4 years	3L
4-5 years	3.2L
5-6 years	3.2L
6-7 years	3.1L
7-8 years	3.3L

Skills Required To Become An Education Counselor

To practice a career as an education counselor, these are a few skills you need to possess.

1. Analytical thinking: As an Education Counselor, you must be able to identify the problems of the student who approaches you, verify the cause of the problem in the process of counseling and come up with solutions.
2. Calm: You might encounter students who might be facing very serious problems. If you need to help them, you need to be calm in order to make the student comfortable while they share their difficulties. 
3. Communication: Having excellent communication skills is true of any job in the field of Psychology. You need to communicate well if you want to know what help they need and help the student.
4. Ethical: The field of Psychology honors ethics. Practicing ethics is true of any profession. As an Education counselor, you must keep the best interests of your client in mind since sensitive topics are often discussed during counseling sessions. 
5. Good Listener: To be a good communicator you first need to be a good listener. When you listen to what the student is saying, you will be in a better position to guide them. Since you are guiding them to opt for the right career, you need to be aware of their areas of interest. 
6. Observer: Apart from verbal communication, you need to maintain focus on the non-verbal communication of the students as well. This will help you determine certain aspects and help you derive important information about the client.
7. Open-minded: A counselor needs to be open-minded and non-judgmental. You need to be open to different perspectives and use various methods to tackle your client’s difficulties. 
8. Patient: The key to being a good listener and a good communicator is to be patient. The client might not immediately open up about their problems. You need to trust the process, make them feel comfortable, and wait for them. 
9. Problem-solving skills: If a client approaches you with a problem, they expect you to help them solve the problem. Therefore, you must practice all the skills mentioned in this list to efficiently solve the problem.

Is Education Counseling A Good Career?

A career as an education counselor is associated with the education industry. Therefore, it has immense scope for growth. Moreover, since the opportunities have increased globally, there are a variety of courses students can pick from to pursue their careers. 

Did you know that the demand for career counselors in India is so high that we need at least 1.5 million more counselors to fill the gap between students and career coaches?

Career counseling is open to all people irrespective of their professional background or age. It doesn’t matter if you join the field as a fresher or at the age of. 

Apart from this, if you are looking to set up your own business, education counseling could be a great opportunity for entrepreneurship. 

Industries Hiring Education Counselor

To practice a career as an education counselor, you can consider working in these places.

1. Colleges/Institutes- Various colleges and educational institutions have a career counselor who either shares information about the career opportunities in that particular college or provides assistance to the students to pursue their higher education.
2. Government/Public/Private schools- Almost every school has a counselor that helps students deal with their academic difficulties. Here students can discuss current academic issues or talk to the counselor if they are confused about their future.
3. Online Career Counselling Services- This is just like any other education counseling session. The only difference is that this service is provided online, that is on chat, call, or video call. 
4. Placement Consultancy Sectors- Today, most colleges have their placement cells that help students get jobs in the field they are interested in. These placement cells also have education counselors to guide them. 

Top Recruiters For Education Counselors In India

1. Arena Animation
2. Board Infinity
3. BYJU’S
4. Careers360
5. Careers Mantra
6. EduPristine
7. Expertrons
8. Jaro Education
9. KC Overseas Education
10. upGrad

Courses To Upskill Your Career As An Education Counselor

If you want to more about how you can improve your skills in your career as an education counselor, you can consider taking these courses. 

Course Name	Duration
PG Diploma in School Counseling	1 year
School Counseling	15 weeks long
Counseling Psychology	16 weeks

Want to boost your chances of getting admission abroad? Sign up for the Clever Harvey JuniorMBA Course and add a real industry project to your student portfolio.

Qualification To Become An Education Counselor

To become an education counselor, you need to pursue an undergraduate degree either in BA Psychology or BSc Psychology, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma, MA, MSc, or M.Phil in the specialization of your choice. Here’s all the information you need to know about the degree programs you can choose from to pursue a career as an education counselor.

Degrees in India 

• Undergraduate Courses For Psychology In India

1. BA Psychology
2. BA (Honours) Psychology
3. BSc Psychology
4. BSc Psychology Honours

• Postgraduate Courses For Psychology In India

Courses	Duration
MA/MSc Counseling Psychology	2-3 years
MA Educational School Psychology	18-24 months
M.Phil Child and Adolescent Psychology	2 years
PGDM Child Psychology	1 year

Degrees Abroad

To pursue an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in Psychology abroad, you will have to give the entrance exam conducted by the university you want to get into. If you want to switch your field after your bachelors in a different subject, check the eligibility criteria of the course you want to pursue. 

• Undergraduate Courses For Psychology Abroad

Courses	Duration
BA Psychology	3-4 years
BSc Psychology	3-4 years

• Postgraduate Courses For Psychology Abroad

Courses	Duration
Master of Counseling	2 years full time
Master of Education- Counseling Studies	2 years full time
MSc Counseling	2 years full time
Master of Counseling and Psychotherapy	2 years full time

Also read about: How to become a Psychiatrist

References

Inspiring stories:

1. Dipti Jahagirdar is a model. Dipti is a high-spirited and progressive woman from Akola, Maharashtra, Her career in education and counseling began when she recognized she enjoyed talking about higher education with students, parents, and friends.
2. Meet Aesha Shah, a 40-year-old woman who has relaunched her career. It all began when she took a leave of absence from her successful teaching job to raise her newborn. During the break, Aesha began blogging about her parenting journey and discovered hundreds of readers who related to her. She was very enthusiastic about blogging. Her blog quickly gained popularity and began appearing in India’s top blog directory every year.

Famous Education Counselors in India

1. Amrita Singh
2. Anuradha Kishore
3. Rahul Dasondi
4. Padmavathi Devarakonda
5. Jagadish Kund
6. Preetika Sharma
7. Sonila Mishra
8. Bharati K Trivedi
9. Pooja Bhatia
10. Neetu Agarwal

Books for Education Counselors

Book Name	Author
The School Counselor’s Book of Lists	Dorothy J. Blum and Tamara E. Davis
SOAR Study Skills	Susan Kruger
Schools Where Everyone Belongs	Stan Davis with Julia Davis
Getting Real: Helping Teens Find Their Future	Kenneth Gray
College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step	Robin Mamlet and Christine VanDeVelde

That’s all you need to know about a career as an Education Counselor. We hope this blog helped to understand how an education counselor works, what an education counselor does, and where you can study. Good luck! 

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