I want to be a career guide. What should I study for become a career counselor

Congratulations on completing your BA. I see you have registered for an M.Ed. and I suppose it could be completed only after a B.Ed right? So have you completed a B.Ed. already? You have indicated that you would like to become a career counselor. Well, interesting! But may I know what drives you to take up this profession? You have constructed a good career graph in the academic teaching and I see you are also moving on to do an M.Ed. and in this case, studying Career Counselling Online is totally in non sink to your past career profile. Completing the M.Ed you could become as a teacher in schools and some colleges too. However taking up a career counselling course is like going into a new path, deviating from your existing education path. So think well if you want to take this risk and really study a course in career counselling.

 

You may also take up the psychometric assessment test from this website to ensure if you are taking up a right choice and are going in a right direction. Additionally send a few calm minutes to question yourself, why you want to study career counselling. If you feel right and are confident about choosing this profession then please move ahead with this.

To become a career counselor, it is often essential to have grounds in Psychology subject as this profession uses soft skills the most and it could be developed only by studying a psychology degree. However I remember you have already completed a BA so why dont you study an MA/ MSc in Applied Psychology or Counselling psychology? Choosing this degree will equip you with in depth knowledge on developing your personality and professional skills that might be deemed necessary in a counselling profession.

In case, you are unable to do a two year masters, you may also do a one year diploma/ postgraduate diploma in counselling psychology or Online Career counselling. This is treated merely equivalent to the MA/ MSc degrees though this diploma will only teach you about psychological counselling and will not give you knowledge on other areas of psychology. But if you have time and money constraints that you cannot study for more than a year or cannot afford fees for more than a year, then this one year course is apt for you. While studying this diploma, you might be necessarily asked to do a summer internship or mini project with a career consultant firm. So make good use of this opportunity and spend at least months under a career counselor and earn hands on experience in these months. Now completing your diploma with an internship, you are easily to score a career counselor job. I hope this helps.

Apart from above suggestion - I can also recommend you CareerGuide's Career Counsellor Certification Course which is 100+ hour self paced online certification designed specifically for aspiring career counsellors and also practising career counsellor for upgrading their knowledge. 

It's a fantastic course with amazing video based content designed by CareerGuide's founder - Surabhi Dewra.  

The online course is enriched with case studies and quizzes and talks about practical knowledge in the field of career guidance. Highly recommended for individuals who are serious about learning art and science of career counselling. 

Some of the counsellor's testimonial should be encouraging for you to take a plunge into career of career counselling:

https://www.careerguide.com/career/certification-course-for-guiding-school-students-online

Good luck.