Course Overview
The Employment Counsellor is a specialist course developed to equip practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and psychologically informed perspectives necessary to support clients—particularly those with disabilities, mental health conditions, or complex barriers—to achieve meaningful, sustainable employment.
Drawing on the new PIE-CF (Psychologically Informed Employment Counselling Framework), this course integrates evidence-based counselling approaches with vocational expertise to deliver truly person-centred employment support. The PIE-CF framework emphasises presence, inquiry, engagement, and collaboration, offering a structured way to combine therapeutic principles with employment practice.
This course positions the employment counsellor as a distinct and emerging role within Australia’s evolving disability and employment landscape, shaped by the NDIS and the growing recognition of the need for integrated, client-led approaches. Unlike traditional rehabilitation or career counselling, employment counsellors use specialised skills to build the employment capability of clients, grounded in psychological insight, ethical practice, and vocational acumen.
Course Objectives
By participating in this course, learners will:
- Understand the PIE-CF Framework: Explore how presence, inquiry, engagement, and collaboration shape psychologically informed employment counselling, fostering a holistic, respectful, and sustainable approach to employment support.
- Examine the professional scope of employment counselling, distinguishing it from mental health interventions while maintaining clear ethical and practice boundaries.
- Investigate motivational theories and learn to apply motivational interviewing and strengths-based dialogue to support clients in building readiness and confidence.
- Develop skills in mindfulness and presence, learning how to bring non-judgemental attention and calm into employment conversations to reduce client anxiety and enhance focus.
- Build foundational and advanced counselling capacities, including trauma-aware practices, recovery coaching, and fostering self-advocacy.
- Learn to apply the Self-Determined Career Design Model, helping clients create meaningful, individualised career pathways aligned with their strengths, interests, and values.
- Practise cross-cutting skills—such as empathic presence, reflective listening, boundary setting, and cultural humility—across all domains of employment counselling.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Confidently apply the PIE-CF framework to structure employment counselling sessions that integrate psychological insight with employment goals.
- Identify and maintain ethical boundaries, differentiating the role of the employment counsellor from that of mental health professionals while working collaboratively with other services.
- Use motivational interviewing, solution-focused approaches, and strengths-based coaching to facilitate client progress.
- Apply mindfulness and presence techniques to manage session dynamics, support client self-regulation, and enhance therapeutic rapport.
- Employ advanced counselling strategies, including recovery-informed approaches, to assist clients managing mental health or addiction challenges in pursuing work.
- Guide clients through the self-determined career design process, fostering ownership, hope, and practical steps toward employment that is both suitable and sustainable.
- Demonstrate reflective practice, using structured reflection and supervision to continuously grow professional capability and ensure responsive, ethical service delivery.
This course also addresses the realities faced by employment staff in regional or remote areas, equipping them with critical skills to work effectively with clients who may not have ready access to mental health supports.
Course Delivery and Professional Pathways
This short course is self-paced, supported by:
- Video demonstrations of core counselling practices and micro-skills.
- Self-assessment tools and reflective learning prompts aligned with the PIE-CF domains.
- Practical worksheets for applying the Self-Determined Career Design Model.
Employment practitioners interested in deepening their therapeutic skill set are encouraged to pursue diploma or undergraduate studies in counselling or psychotherapy to complement this foundation and enhance their scope of practice.
