Career Development and Counseling – COUC 522

Course Description

Rationale

Considering that most people expend a large proportion of their lives selecting and filling work roles, clients often have a need for career counseling at some point, regardless of the settings. Therefore, counselors must be able to assist clients in navigating their career development over the various stages of their lives. Thus, counselors must be able to facilitate clients’ exploration of 1) self and the world of work, 2) values and salient life roles, and 3) how these factors interact with their career identity through the process of career identity development. In this process, career counselors assist clients in the decision-making process, helping them to understand their unique traits, interests, and capacities through the process of career identity development.

Method of Instruction: This 8-week course is delivered in a digital asynchronous format, with Canvas® as the primary instructional delivery method. Students complete one module per week over the duration of the course.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist Assignment

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (4)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the discussions are designed to develop the student’s critical thinking skills and to stimulate class discussion on relevant topics related to career counseling. As such, the student will be graded on his/her ability to analyze course material and communicate it in a succinct and cogent manner. For each Discussion, the student will submit 1 thread of 400–450 words and at least 1 reply of 200–250 words to a classmate’s thread. Each thread must include at least 2 citations in current APA format. (CLO: A, C, D, E, F, G)

The student will complete a non-graded Career Inventory activity. The activity will walk the student through the steps of completing various career assessments. The results from the assessments will be used in the Career Self-Assessment & Exploration Assignment. (CLO: A, B, C, E, F, G)

Benchmark: Career Self-Assessment & Exploration Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to help the student develop a better understanding of the complexities of the career counseling and planning process and to complete his/her individual career counseling and planning cycle. The student will assess their interests, values, and spiritual discernment approach. The student will apply a counseling theory to his/her own career development and decision-making process. Additionally, the student will identify ethically based strategies for working with clients with differing values. The student will write a 10-12-page paper in current APA format, incorporating at least 3 scholarly references in addition to the provided O*NET web resource. (CLOs: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

Career Services Visit, Résumé, and Critique Assignment

One function of the online visit is for the student to familiarize with general information provided by Career Services centers. The primary focus of the visit is for the student to build a résumé using the components found in the Résumé and Cover Letter link provided by Career Services. The student will submit his/her completed résumé to Career Services for a résumé critique. School Counseling students include the finished résumé in their portfolio assignment during both of the internship semesters. (CLO: B, E, F)

Benchmark: Career Development Program Proposal Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to help the student understand the process of developing a career development program based on the needs of an identified population within a counseling setting. The student will identify appropriate career development standards to create measurable objectives, identify evidence-based career development interventions, and appropriate program evaluation strategies. There is no specific number of slides required, but the presentation should not exceed 30 slides. Presentation should be 18-22 minutes in length. (CLO: C, D, E, F) 

For this quiz, the student will upload documentation verifying that he/she submitted his/her resume to Career Services for review. This quiz will contain 1 file upload question, and will have no time limit.

Quizzes (8)

The student will complete the assigned quiz after reading the Learn material in each module. Each quiz is open-book/open-notes, contains 10 multiple-choice questions, has a time limit of 20 minutes, and is similar to the content found on state licensure examinations. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

Quiz: Dispositions Reflection

The student will complete the assigned quiz after reading the Dispositions material in the assigned Modules: Weeks. This quiz is open-book/open-notes, contains 10 multiple-choice and essay questions, and has a time limit of 1 hour.