‘My first counselling job was also my school’s first counselling post’
How do you set up a new counselling department when you are also new to counselling – with no experience or existing systems to draw on?
Kaneez Fatima
One of the biggest challenges I faced during my counselling career was transitioning from higher education into a school counselling role. Before joining my school, I had experience teaching at university and working in educational administration. Although these experiences provided a strong foundation, I quickly realised that career counselling in a school requires a very different approach.
I was fortunate to receive onboarding training through our school network and to become part of an experienced community of counsellors who regularly shared ideas and opportunities.
However, I was the first dedicated guidance counsellor at my campus. Although there were established initiatives across the wider network, our campus did not yet have its own counselling calendar, student engagement activities or systems tailored to our students’ needs.
Challenges of counselling: timing and structure
During my first year, I also balanced counselling with teaching responsibilities. While managing both roles helped me understand different aspects of school life, it also made it difficult to dedicate enough time to developing a structured counselling programme.
After reflecting on these challenges, I discussed my workload with the senior leadership team. They were supportive and adjusted my responsibilities, allowing me to focus on counselling more effectively. This experience reinforced an important lesson: effective counselling requires collaboration and institutional support.
Another challenge was timing. Experienced counsellors already understand the annual rhythm of school life and can anticipate when scholarships, competitions, leadership programmes, internships and other opportunities will become available. As someone new to the school environment, I was still learning this cycle.
On several occasions, opportunities were announced when students were preparing for Cambridge examinations or were already on school holidays. I could only share the information digitally but I soon realised that simply forwarding a long email or registration form was rarely enough to motivate students. Without face-to-face conversations, many students overlooked opportunities or were unsure whether they were eligible.
Proactive, rather than reactive
Rather than accepting this as a limitation, I began experimenting with different approaches. Instead of forwarding lengthy messages, I used AI tools to transform information into visually engaging infographics and short presentations. This made opportunities easier to understand and encouraged students to contact me with questions about eligibility, choosing between programmes and identifying opportunities that matched their interests. Even when students are away from school, meaningful digital engagement becomes possible.
Reflecting on these experiences, I realised that career counselling should be proactive rather than reactive. As I became more familiar with the school calendar, I developed an annual counselling plan tailored to my campus. Alongside network initiatives, I introduced regular career development activities such as LinkedIn profile-building, public speaking sessions, career awareness discussions and student profile-building opportunities.
I also created a monthly planning calendar that anticipates scholarships, fellowships, internships, competitions, community service opportunities and alumni interactions. This allowed me to introduce these concepts well in advance so that when opportunities are officially announced, students already understand their value and are ready to participate.
And I introduced regular classroom guidance sessions with different year groups. These sessions help students become familiar with me, create opportunities for informal conversations and allow trust to develop gradually. I found that students were much more likely to seek individual guidance once a relationship had already been established.
Small changes, made consistently
If I were advising a counsellor starting a similar role, I would encourage them not to wait for opportunities to appear before engaging students. Learn your school’s academic calendar, build relationships early, collaborate closely with your leadership team and use technology creatively to keep students engaged when face-to-face interaction is limited.
Small improvements made consistently can transform a counselling programme from reactive to proactive and create a lasting impact on students’ career development.