Considering a career in counselling in international schools

Teacher Horizons works with educators, counsellors and school leaders to connect them with international schools in positions across the world. For those interested in providing guidance to young people on their careers, university and the future at large, working as a counsellor in an international school could be the perfect fit. Some school counsellors have shared their experiences and about the opportunities advising abroad and how they arrived at their roles. 

The state of advising abroad

International schools offer students, teachers, counsellors and other staff unique opportunities to engage with a host of different cultures and approach learning with an open mind. These environments attract a particular type of professional, one who takes on new challenges while maintaining a certain level of flexibility required when living abroad. 

Counsellors in these schools provide support in integral ways, maintaining the necessary structure for students who may grow up more isolated given the nature of international schools.

Working as a Career and University Guidance Counsellor can allow individuals to make significant impacts on students' lives while growing as a professional in the process.

Emotional and Social Counselling is another avenue to support students. With Mental Health Awareness week upon us, these counsellors’ work in schools across the world must be celebrated and recognised to help support this next generation. 

Rachel Knowles, Teacher Horizons’ International Advisor, says, “You can’t put a price on good counselling”. She understands the difference that counselling for young people makes, and how valued these professionals are in schools.

Transitioning to a career in counselling in international schools can look different depending on one’s experience and desired end-point. But for those looking to work with young people, supporting them to realise their full potential, counselling in international schools can yield a fulfilling experience professionally and personally.

Navigating the path to a career in counselling

For Fiona Haughton, a University Guidance Counsellor at School of the Nations in Macau, the path to this career was not a perfectly linear experience. With a passion for career advising, she gained experience advising young people in various roles working with a local authority, a housing association and a college. 

“Get some kind of training behind you, whether or not that’s like me who did a career’s qualification. It gave me counselling skills but it also gave me an understanding of careers in an education setting.”

She suggests identifying what type of counselling you want to pursue, selecting appropriate certification programs while simultaneously getting counselling experience to prepare for the responsibility of advising young people.

There are a variety of courses that provide the necessary qualification for counselling. Fiona recommends the post-baccalaureate program with UC Berkeley, but there are many other courses that you can research online to find the right fit for you.

Additionally, Fiona says that building on your professional experiences, whether from a business context or a background in education, is crucial to success in this role. Transferable skills are necessary to support all students in their journeys beyond secondary school.

Counselling an international community

One particular challenge for counsellors working in international education face emerges from the cultural disconnect some students have growing up in these types of global environments. Often referred to as “third culture kids”, these young people may not have a connection to a particular home country.

While these students can develop a better understanding of the world, they don’t necessarily see themselves in their communities. Counsellors need to think about these experiences that colour student’s perspectives when working in these environments.

“That’s part of the richness of international schools,” says Cheryl-Ann Weekes, a counsellor with the International Community School of Abidjan. “You can have children who have lived in more countries than the adults, who connect with a particular country even though that’s not where their family is from...The traditional sense of home does not apply.”

The range of counselling roles in international schools

For various reasons, parents look towards the schools’ counselling team when deciding what is best for their children. Of course, parents want their children to receive social and emotional support, but an ever-growing demand of international school parents is the desire to secure university admissions for their students.

While some schools divide the workload of counsellors (university & career guidance and social & emotional support) between more than one professional, often one person assumes all these responsibilities. Other times, schools will assign a counsellor to the primary school and another to the secondary school to handle these two different groups of students. 

The university guidance aspect of counselling, or counsellors that focus on colleges and careers, requires a broad area of knowledge about the many different options available to students in international schools. The application process can vary widely for different English-medium higher education programs, and that doesn’t even include the array of other options students might pursue outside of university.

College guidance remains a top priority for international schools because students’ acceptance into well-known universities around the world makes for a robust recruitment strategy. Many parents and students have fixed ideas about what constitutes a “good university”, something counsellors like Cheryl-Ann work hard to dispel.

“You should be finding the university that is the best fit for you,” Cheryl-Ann tells her students who insist on going to a brand name school that others will recognise. 

But regardless of the back and forth students and counsellors engage in, the goal of Fiona's work remains clear. “What are the needs of my students, and how can I support them to understand what their needs are and their wants to get to where they want to go? And deal with some hiccups and some barriers along the way.”

Advising in international schools offers counsellors enormous opportunity for professional growth, personal adventure and unique challenges. Individuals hoping to work with this diverse student population can connect with a Teacher Horizons international advisor.