An ethnographic exploration of counsellors' experiences of career councelling with students

Abstract

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to explore the following: 1. The counsellors’ experience of the process of career counselling provided to students at a distance learning institution 2. My own experiences of doing counselling with Unisa students. 3. How Holland’s career theory, the social cognitive career theory and the chaos theory of careers could shape the process of career counselling. The themes that emanated from the stories of six counsellors indicate that they view counselling as a continuous process wherein it is necessary to strike a balance through blended counselling between the needs of individuals versus helping the multitude of anonymous students. In order to facilitate counselling effectively, counsellors need resources and in order to develop these resources they use a diversity of career theories which act as a frame of reference. Attention is given to the development of career counsellors’ identity and self-confidence and how this impacts on the counsellors’ growth. The recommendations of this study hold the promise of contributing to the counselling process at the DCCD.