Counseling practicum in producing excellent counselor

Abstract

Counseling education and practicum plays a vital role in producing quality counselors. Hence, the higher education institute must ensure that the training of counselors is equipped with proper input in the field of counseling either in theory or practical. This study is focused on the recognition of the education element in the theory and practice. There are 10 trainee counselors from one of the Malaysia's higher education institute that took part in this study. Subjects consisted of two men and eight women that have done their practicum in two semesters as part time. The data sources were obtained from the practicum's report, audio and video tapes of counseling session, case note and log book. All the data was analyzed by using contents analysis. Research finding has shown that two hours of counseling session for every week is really helpful to the student in order to carry out their counseling with client. Findings also show that training counselor also have fulfilled the counseling test requirement through the report and practicum analysis, arranged the individual and group's counseling session, psychology test, assist and consultation activity and also management and administration activity. Practicum training is proven to help training counselors to obtain their skill and improve their experience in order to handle counseling session with remarks and later to produce eminent counselors. Consequently, this research findings can give an input to the instructor or institutions in producing trained counselor that comply with the aspiration of counseling profession that is already recognized as professional service. (Malaysian Counselor Act, 1998–Act 580).