Paradigm Shift In Career Counselling: Implications For Entrepreneurship Development

Abstract

Schools have been for years turning out employees. The current challenge is that they are expected to prepare students for new work environment they were not familiar with. This requires new skills, new approaches and new mindsets. Two research questions were raised to find out the career counselling skills practicing counsellors used in the past two years and to find out if they are aware of the need for a new approach to career counselling. 70 practicing counsellors responded to the career counselling Skill Questionnaire (CCSQ developed by the researcher. The result using percentages showed that majority of the respondents were using “traditional” career counselling Skills. However, many of the respondents were aware of the need for a new approach to career counselling. The implication of this finding to entrepreneurship development is the need to adopt a paradigm shift in career counselling. Retraining of practicing counsellors and new training guides for student counsellors as well as the need to foster career development culture was recommended.