‘More guidance counsellors needed to fulfil targets’

GUIDANCE counsellors must be given more time to help young people with career and subject choices if Government targets to meet economic requirements are to be met, a conference heard yesterday.

Frank Mulvihill, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC), called on Education Minister Mary Hanafin to restore the situation in second-level schools to the 1980s, when a full-time counsellor was appointed for every 250 students.

Schools are only entitled to a full-time counsellor if it has at least 500 students, with some exceptions for disadvantaged schools and others under various schemes in recent years.

He said counsellors will have an important role in schools and workplaces if the aims of the national skills strategy, launched by Ms Hanafin and Employment Minister Micheál Martin this week, are to be achieved.

It sets out that half all workers should have a third-level qualification by 2020 and that almost three-quarters of school leavers would go on to third level, up from just over half.

“The opportunity presents itself to restore the 250:1 ratio of students to guidance counsellors so that a truly effective service can be established to support the skills strategy, among other things,” he said.

An Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report, published in September, supported the allocation of greater guidance resources to schools with more than 300 students and larger schools.

“Bearing in mind the expectations for Government to tackle social problems educational problems and to address career and skills shortages, it is time to address this matter so we can provide a service which will make a significant difference in the long run,” Mr Mulvihill said.

A particular difficulty faced by guidance counsellors is that time restraints restrict them to helping older students with college applications to the Central Applications Office (CAO), leaving little time to help junior-cycle students.

Some of the issues facing these younger students may be answered by a new online service, launched by Ms Hanafin at the IGC’s annual conference in Killarney yesterday. As part of the institute’s Qualifax website, it will help them make informed decisions about subject choices before they beginning fifth year.