Vocational Counseling

Abstract

Abstract The phrase vocational counseling represents a composite of the two most popular career services, namely, vocational guidance and career counseling. Career services are psychosocial interventions that assist individuals in adapting to the community by choosing, entering, and adjusting to a work role. Other important career services include academic advising, occupational placement, job coaching, vocational rehabilitation, and career education (Busacca, 2002). Vocational guidance and career counseling are the most widely known career interventions because both are offered at most schools and colleges by educators who are sometimes referred to as guidance counselors. Although vocational guidance and career counseling share many similarities, they are easily distinguishable from each other. Vocational guidance involves personal appraisal by a counselor, computer program, or self‐help booklet to assist individuals and groups in making better educational and vocational decisions. Career counseling is an ongoing, face‐to‐face interaction during which a counselor uses problem appraisal to assist a client coping with decision‐making difficulties or work adjustment concerns. The following paragraphs elaborate the distinction between vocational guidance and career counseling by describing each career service.