Course Overview
This course, The Employment Counsellor, is designed to equip practitioners with the essential knowledge and skills required to support clients in achieving meaningful employment outcomes. The course provides an in-depth understanding of employment counselling, motivational interviewing, mindfulness, self-determination, and advanced counselling techniques. Participants will learn how to integrate these methods to effectively support clients with diverse needs, particularly those with disabilities or mental health challenges, while creating a working alliance with the employment specialist.
The Employment Counsellor is an emerging role that differs from traditional rehabilitation and career counselling in the workplace. Fostered by the emergence of the NDIS, employment counsellors use their counselling skills and fundamental employment knowledge to build client capacity for employment.
Course Objectives
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of employment counselling and its purpose in supporting vocational outcomes.
- Explore the boundaries of practice between mental health specialists and employment counsellors.
- Gain insights into motivational theories, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and learn how to apply motivational interviewing techniques.
- Understand the principles and applications of mindfulness in the workplace to enhance presence, focus, and productivity.
- Learn the foundational and advanced counselling skills necessary to support clients through recovery coaching, self-advocacy, and self-determination strategies.
- Understand the role of self-determination in career planning and how to implement a self-determined career design model.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify and apply employment counselling strategies to assist clients in finding meaningful work.
- Differentiate between the roles of qualified mental health professionals and employment counsellors, ensuring ethical and professional boundaries are maintained.
- Utilise motivational interviewing techniques to enhance client engagement and motivation.
- Apply mindfulness practices in employment support contexts to reduce client anxiety and improve focus.
- Implement advanced counselling techniques, such as recovery coaching, to support clients with mental health and addiction challenges.
- Empower clients to become effective self-advocates and navigate complex employment landscapes with confidence.
- Use the self-determined career design model to create personalised career plans that align with the client’s strengths, interests, and values.
For employment staff working in regional or remote locations without access to mental health facilities or programs, this course will provide valuable skills and insight to assist you in working effectively with clients who present with mental health issues.
The short course is self-paced and supported by self-assessment and video resources.
Employment staff looking to deliver counselling using a therapeutic framework are encouraged to consider undertaking diploma or undergraduate training in this field.
