Occupation

Guidance counsellor

Helps students with course selection, post-school planning, and the personal or social difficulties that get in the way of their learning. Runs individual and group sessions, and refers students on to psychologists, health services, or child protection agencies when a need goes beyond the school's remit.

Also known as: School counselor · Student services counsellor · School guidance teacher

Saving keeps the career family and this occupation as your private target role on this device.

Occupation content

Part of Education and training

A visual day in the work

What the work involves

  1. Meet students individually about course choices and post-school options

  2. Run group sessions on study skills, applications, and transitions

  3. Screen presenting concerns and refer students to specialist services

  4. Support students through conflict, bullying, or family disruption

  5. Keep confidential case notes within school and legal policy

  6. Coordinate with teachers, families, and outside agencies

Entry-route stepper

How people commonly enter

  1. Teaching qualification plus postgraduate study in counselling or guidance

  2. Master's degree in school counselling or a related counselling field

  3. Supervised counselling practice as part of the qualifying program

  4. Certification or registration with the counselling or teaching regulator where one applies

Typical training: Postgraduate or professional degree

Licensing: Regulated in most jurisdictions. Confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.

Work-context map

Typical work context

  • Public facing
  • Team based
  • High responsibility
  • Desk based
  • Quiet focus

Public facing · Team based · High responsibility · Desk based · Quiet focus

Related interests

  • Social (helping)
  • Investigative (analytical)

Social (helping) · Investigative (analytical)

Related aptitude preparation

These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.

Skills to practise

Practice suites

Related learning

Family-level learning links for Education and training.

Official sources

Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.

Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)

This is broad family-level context for Education and training in Canada, not a figure for Guidance counsellor. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.

This is a broad Education and training family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.

Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period

Education and training: education pathways

Some roles in Education and training may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.

Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period

Education and training: licensing

Explore Canada's official sources

Find jobs

These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Guidance counsellor”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.

Report a change or missing information

Related occupations

Learn → Practise → Prepare → Apply

Continue from this occupation

Choose a learning action because it supports the work, not because a test score predicts career suitability.

When you get to the application

Novus Learn stops at preparation. These two Novus tools cover the paperwork, and like this site they run entirely in your browser. Nothing you upload to them leaves your device.

Report a change or missing information

Consent version 2026-08-21.1

Cookie preferences