My husband and I are looking to start the application process for international school starting summer/fall 2017. My husband is certified to teach SPED and PE and has over 8 years experience. I have 10 years in mental health as a licensed clinical social worker, and I will have my school social work endorsement by this summer (got my MSW almost 10 years ago). While most of my experience has been in adult mental health, crisis intervention, and management, I will have 2 years of experience working as a school based therapist in an IB high school.
Would a school social work endorsement qualify me to work as a counselor at ISs?
Would there be an interest my credential for school counseling position at Tier 1 schools?
I noticed that having college counseling experience is very important, so how much on the job training will schools provide or would it be important to work on getting a college counseling certificate?
School Counselor with Social Work degree
Response
What do you mean by "school based therapist"?
Normally a School Social Worker wouldnt be considered qualified as a school counselor, but your combined recent experience and school social work credential plus background is marketable at lower tier ISs.
No, 2 years experience as some kind of therapist, lacking an actual counselor credential, and no Uni/career counseling experience or expertise. Tier 1 ISs get to be selective, your resume wont be the top of the pile. Your spouse is more marketable at a tier 1 IS with his SPED experience. A counselor appointment for you would be part of the comp.
ISs will provide zero, who would provide it to you? This is why the Uni/Career counselor is much more marketable than the MH aspect of the counselor tasking. There are some qualification programs in it, many of them out of California but they are more extended studies types of programs, its a course 45-90 contact hours. Even if you did that, youd be missing the other half which is UK Uni advising and now CAN advising is growing.
Normally a School Social Worker wouldnt be considered qualified as a school counselor, but your combined recent experience and school social work credential plus background is marketable at lower tier ISs.
No, 2 years experience as some kind of therapist, lacking an actual counselor credential, and no Uni/career counseling experience or expertise. Tier 1 ISs get to be selective, your resume wont be the top of the pile. Your spouse is more marketable at a tier 1 IS with his SPED experience. A counselor appointment for you would be part of the comp.
ISs will provide zero, who would provide it to you? This is why the Uni/Career counselor is much more marketable than the MH aspect of the counselor tasking. There are some qualification programs in it, many of them out of California but they are more extended studies types of programs, its a course 45-90 contact hours. Even if you did that, youd be missing the other half which is UK Uni advising and now CAN advising is growing.
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eion_padraig
- Posts: 408
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2010 8:18 pm
Re: School Counselor with Social Work degree
Probably not at a Tier 1 school as they can find solid applicants with school counseling experience and most often they draw from people who have been overseas and working with an international population. Frankly, a lot of those jobs will already be filled for Fall 2017.
But not all the folks who are working as school counselors have the credential or training for it. Some have general counseling degrees and others come from backgrounds similar to you. Some may have been teachers who had some training, but not necessarily a degree. Sometimes college counselors have worked in university admissions. It can depend on the country and their policies for getting a working visa.
Having said that, it's a good year to be looking for school counseling positions as there seem to be a lot this year. You'd probably be more competitive for a school counseling position at a school where they have a college counselor and you'd be focusing on social/emotional/academic issues, or at a school where they have someone working with younger grades middle school to 9th and 10th.
A desperate tier 2 or a tier 3 school might hire you without experience in college counseling. I've met some people that schools have hired that were scrambling to learn. It might be workable if there was another counselor who knew university admission well, but even then you'd have to fake it a cycle or two. At a tier 1 school you'd have problems doing that.
ULCA's certificate program has been well regarded, but there are others. I think several of the others are also at UC's.
https://www.uclaextension.edu/public/ca ... Id=1061730
http://extension.ucsd.edu/Programs/inde ... icateID=35
These tend to be US focused. If you're doing substantial work in college counseling your knowledge base needs to be much more expansive. It's not necessarily the certificate, because that's not going to get you a visa, but it's being familiar with the process.
I have a few other posts where I've detailed some ways of developing that knowledge in terms of training and conferences. They may be helpful if you're interested.
Eion
But not all the folks who are working as school counselors have the credential or training for it. Some have general counseling degrees and others come from backgrounds similar to you. Some may have been teachers who had some training, but not necessarily a degree. Sometimes college counselors have worked in university admissions. It can depend on the country and their policies for getting a working visa.
Having said that, it's a good year to be looking for school counseling positions as there seem to be a lot this year. You'd probably be more competitive for a school counseling position at a school where they have a college counselor and you'd be focusing on social/emotional/academic issues, or at a school where they have someone working with younger grades middle school to 9th and 10th.
A desperate tier 2 or a tier 3 school might hire you without experience in college counseling. I've met some people that schools have hired that were scrambling to learn. It might be workable if there was another counselor who knew university admission well, but even then you'd have to fake it a cycle or two. At a tier 1 school you'd have problems doing that.
ULCA's certificate program has been well regarded, but there are others. I think several of the others are also at UC's.
https://www.uclaextension.edu/public/ca ... Id=1061730
http://extension.ucsd.edu/Programs/inde ... icateID=35
These tend to be US focused. If you're doing substantial work in college counseling your knowledge base needs to be much more expansive. It's not necessarily the certificate, because that's not going to get you a visa, but it's being familiar with the process.
I have a few other posts where I've detailed some ways of developing that knowledge in terms of training and conferences. They may be helpful if you're interested.
Eion
Re: School Counselor with Social Work degree
Happy New Year Eion,
Thanks for the links.
It would seem that there needs to be a global college counselling course. High School counsellors have the daunting task of knowing many countries' university entrance procedures for the international student; there doesn't seem to be a certificate that encapsulates the knowledge a counsellor needs regarding entrance into Australian, British, European, US, Canadian etc post secondary. Tough job to get on top of. Likely take a career to know it well. Layers over time.
Let's hope that a university comes up with a more universal university entrance training program for secondary international counsellors.
Thanks for the links.
It would seem that there needs to be a global college counselling course. High School counsellors have the daunting task of knowing many countries' university entrance procedures for the international student; there doesn't seem to be a certificate that encapsulates the knowledge a counsellor needs regarding entrance into Australian, British, European, US, Canadian etc post secondary. Tough job to get on top of. Likely take a career to know it well. Layers over time.
Let's hope that a university comes up with a more universal university entrance training program for secondary international counsellors.
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eion_padraig
- Posts: 408
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2010 8:18 pm
Re: School Counselor with Social Work degree
I only know of short training courses like College Board's held at NYU - https://professionals.collegeboard.org/ ... selors-nyu, and Counseling Training Center (which is associated with PTC) - http://www.theptc.org/ctc103.
There would be a market for it though. It looks like UCLA is adding optional electives to their program. Maybe they should find an experienced international counselor to tackle admissions in other countries. I could teach a course like that and so could a number of my friends.
I do think the US system is more complicated due to it's size, number of state university systems, and number of private universities. By contrast, things in the UK, Canada, and Australia are much more transparent and clear, though each of those countries has unusual things a good college counselor should be aware of not to mention other countries and regions. In general, people who work in college counseling are very willing to help each other and share information, which helps out a lot.
Eion
There would be a market for it though. It looks like UCLA is adding optional electives to their program. Maybe they should find an experienced international counselor to tackle admissions in other countries. I could teach a course like that and so could a number of my friends.
I do think the US system is more complicated due to it's size, number of state university systems, and number of private universities. By contrast, things in the UK, Canada, and Australia are much more transparent and clear, though each of those countries has unusual things a good college counselor should be aware of not to mention other countries and regions. In general, people who work in college counseling are very willing to help each other and share information, which helps out a lot.
Eion