Young student in the library with a tablet
Degree Course

Professional Counselling

Professional Counselling Certificate Programme

Overview

The University of Applied Labour Studies (HdBA) has offered the "Professional Counselling" certificate programme for counsellors from various professional counselling departments at the BA since 01.11.2023. The certificate programme comprises the compulsory module "Advanced Counselling Skills and three elective modules. To obtain the university certificate "Professional Counselling, two of the three elective modules must be successfully completed alongside the compulsory module.

Curriculum

[Translate to English:] Curriculum des Zertifikatsprogramms Professionelle Beratung bestehend aus dem Pflichtmodul Erweiterte Beratungskompetenz und drei Wahlpflichtmodulen. Weg der Teilnehmenden durch das Zertifikatsprogramm: Erfüllung der Zulassungsvoraussetzungen, verpflichtende Teilnahme an dem Modul Erweiterte Beratungskompetenz und freiwillige Teilnahme an zwei weiteren Wahlpflichtmodulen. Abschluss mit der hochschulseitigen Zertifizierung Professionelle Beratung.

Course Content

The "Professional Counselling" certificate programme enables the advisers in the fields of pre-employment counselling, career counselling as well as counselling for professional rehabilitation and participation to professionalise their counselling skills sustainably. Counselling at the BA is strengthened considerably by the introduction of lifelong career counselling (LBB). The focus of this university programme is therefore further professionalisation, conscious self-reflection and reflection on cases as well as the expansion of the participants' counselling competencies.

The learning aims and content of the elective modules extend from the compulsory module "Advanced Counselling Skills" and provide for a deeper examination of discontinuous educational and professional backgrounds, the effects, opportunities and limitations of digital change in career counselling, and transformation processes in working life, the labour market and careers. The elective modules therefore contribute to the sustainable acquisition of competencies within future-oriented career counselling.

The three electives are:

  1. Professional Backgrounds and Counselling
  2. New Approaches to Professional and Digital Counselling
  3. The Future of Work, the Labour Market and Career. Current Developments and Interdisciplinary Contributions

The elective "Professional Backgrounds and Counselling" has the primary learning goal of developing future-oriented career prospects together with those seeking advice and providing professional support for their implementation. For this purpose, educational and career paths as well as discontinuities are analysed, and interactions between life events and the education and employment system are evaluated.

The elective module "New Approaches to Professional and Digital Counselling" aims to enable participants  to independently and efficiently acquire digital counselling media so that they can use them appropriately in different situations regarding effectiveness and usefulness for different client groups.

The aim of the elective module "The Future of Work, the Labour Market and Career. Current Developments and Interdisciplinary Contributions" is to analyse and recognise current developments, to identify future development scenarios and to draw conclusions for the BA. In addition, the influential factors at customer level are outlined, and the opportunities and challenges of promoting inclusion and participation in working life are reflected upon.

Both the content and learning aims can be found in detail in the module cards of the elective module.

A brief introduction to the elective module in the Professional Counselling certificate programme:

This presentation provides you with a compact overview of (non-accessible PDF, dated 21.04.2023)

  • the meaning and benefits for the BA,
  • of the overall aims of the certificate programme,
  • the goals and content of the three elective modules and
  • the structure of the elective modules.

Course Structure

The structure of the modules in the "Professional Counselling" certificate programme aims towards a close integration of learning and practical application. The content gives the counselling an academic basis, practical application and reflection support the participants in the professionalisation of their counselling skills. Methods for self-reflection as well as the reflection of cases promote the sustainability of the counselling skills development process.

The structure and procedure for the three elective modules are identical. They are, however, different to the procedure for the compulsory module.

All elective modules each have a workload of 125 teaching hours (LVS) split over one semester, i.e. six months. The workload comprises 40 LVS for the synchronic online- and on-campus sessions as well as the 85 LVS for the self-study phases.

[Translate to English:] Aufbau und Ablauf der Wahlpflichtmodule im Zertifikatsprogramm Professionelle Beratung mit einer Dauer der Module von sechs Monaten. Synchrone Online- und Präsenzveranstaltungen im Gesamtumfang von 40 Stunden. Darüber hinaus verteilt sich die Selbstlernphase mit 85 Stunden auf die gesamte Zeit von dem Beginn bis zum Ende der Module.

In the elective modules, different elements of blended learning in the on-campus and distance-learning-phases are combined. Every elective module finishes with an examination.