Counselor Commitment and Career Development

The relationship between preparation and career commitment is explored by studying the degree to which counseling personnel actively involve themselves as school counselors after training. If counselor education programs are truly concerned with preparing professionals for a career, then long-term involvement is an important criterion reflecting the success of counselors and their prior preparation. Results from a study tracing 406 graduates from 20 NDEA institutes six years after training showed that only 45 percent immediately entered and remained in counseling for six years. The existence of a teacher-counselor-administrator promotion ladder is presented as being a major source of loss from the ranks of school counseling. A related finding showed non-entry to counseling to be caused by a return to classroom teaching after counseling preparation.     

A Survey of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counseling Training Needs

A total of 580 vocational rehabilitation counseling professionals from Rehabilitation Services Administration Region III responded to a 40-item, forced-choice questionnaire regarding perceived needs for training in the area of psychiatric rehabilitation. Although it was identified as least available, opportunity for continuing education was rated as the optimal vehicle for training rather than formal academic course work or agency in-service programs. Translating psychiatric diagnoses into functional behavioral terminology was ranked foremost as a specific training need; training in career counseling and realistic goal planning and job-seeking skills and job placement needs of the psychiatrically disabled client ranked second and third.