More Than Just Counselling: Australian Counsellor Job Advertisement Trends

Abstract

Research on counsellors in Australia has tended towards workforce surveys that profile association members, and thus, tend to reflect the interests and priorities of counsellors and the counselling profession. However, little is known about what the employment context offers and expects of counsellor positions. This exploratory point-in-time study undertook a content analysis of counsellor job advertisements and categorised the findings into three main areas: conditions, description of the role, and selection criteria. The findings suggest that for counselling roles, employers are less concerned about whether applicants have had specialised counselling training, but that they have tertiary qualifications in cognate disciplines and can undertake a wider range of tasks in addition to providing counselling. Several role requirements specified by employers are not mentioned in contemporary Australian counselling training standards, though most are mentioned in the profession’s scope of practice documents. This research provides counselling educators, counselling students, and counsellor jobseekers data on possible trends of contemporary employment patterns appearing in advertised counsellor positions.