Counselor Interview Paper

Counselor Interview Paper

Running head: COUNSELOR INTERVIEW PAPER 1

Student Name

Counselor Interview Paper

CO 254

Term and Year

Professor Name

Date

University of West Alabama

Abstract

Provide a brief overview of this project on this page.

Introduction

The counselor interview paper is designed to provide CO 542 students with an opportunity to dialogue with a counselor currently working in the field, so that students can learn more about a desired area of practice in which they might choose to work after graduation. This paper looks at the chosen counselor’s background, educational attainment and training, work history and current work environment. Additionally, discussed in the interview are the topics of job responsibilities and duties, the current population the counselor works with, the counselor’s personal counseling philosophy, along with day-to-day activities and the theory that guide her practice. Finally, assessments that are used in her work and how, professional development activities engaged in, as well as the rewards and frustrations of the job will also be covered.

Throughout the interview, the discussion will center primarily on the counselor’s activities in providing career information, assessment, and career counseling; also discussed will be the strategies used for advocating for diverse clients with regard to career, educational development, and employment opportunities in the global economy; the strategies that are used to facilitate client skill development for career, education, and life-work planning and management; as well as the strategies she employs to advocate for people with special needs.

Mary Ann Cummings: Career Counselor and Program Instructor

The counselor chosen for this interview was Mary Ann Cummings, who is a program instructor and career counselor with Career Bridges (a career guidance and assessment service offered to people in the county of West Prince, Prince Edward Island, Canada), a career she has held for the past 21 years. This service offers vocational assessment and career guidance programming for people considering a career change or further training. The services provided by Career Bridges are first, to identify the client’s interests, aptitudes, and abilities. Then, upon understanding these aspects of the client better, individual and group career facilitation is provided. The program facilitator arranges career exposure, as well as establishes the goal setting process and guides future employment paths for the clients. Career Bridges as a service also assists clients with resume and cover letter writing, interview strategies, as well as assistance with honing their job search skills.

When Cummings does an information session about Career Bridges, she discusses the following pertinent topics, as each is applicable to the importance of Career Bridges and what it offers the West Prince clientele: she covers the assessments which will be offered, the interest inventories (personality types, ability, aptitude) offered, the variety of speakers that will present, the ideas of self-image/self esteem (as important to growth), the conflict resolution training and anger management training to be held, and the idea that communications is essential to work life. She further covers employer/employee expectations and rights, the importance of confidentiality, the importance of believing in oneself, what the work stations will entail (in the second half of the program), how plans of action will be rolled out, the importance of employability skills (resumes and cover letters), the different learning styles people can have, along with the success of past clients. Each of these various components provides impetus for the incoming clients, convincing them that Career Bridges is really designed with them in mind. The various topics listed above are written out in a brochure-format which is used to guide the information session (M.L. Cummings, personal communication, May 28, 2018).

The following interview paper will be divided into sections that include pertinent aspects of Cummings’ career and day-to day functioning as a career counselor.

Background (Work Experience and Work History)

For this current position as instructor and counselor at Career Bridges, Cummings says she was ‘grandmothered’ into the system. She uses this term because she was not trained formally, as those counselors are required to be today. She also uses this phrase because each step along the way was a gradual move toward the next step in her career.

At the beginning of her career, Cummings primarily worked in adult education at Holland College, coming into this job shortly after high school. She started in the office doing administrative work, after which she took some training for being a lab assistant (which is the equivalent of today’s educational assistant in the classroom). Cummings says the lab assistants were complementary to the facilitators teaching in the lab-setting, the latter of whom were certified teachers. Cummings adds that the lab assistant’s job was to support the students with their academic work.

Cummings eventually left behind the lab assistant job to become the coordinator for the West Prince Center of Holland College; in doing so, she became interested in helping the Center start funding programs for job entry and re-entry for women. Cummings was the individual who would put in proposals for such projects, searching for monies that would fund these programs. She was involved in the classroom portion of the proposal, as well.

To provide some context for the above, this adult-continuing education program that Cummings’ worked within was started as an initiative of the provincial government’s Department of Education (Division of Vocational and Continuing Education); however, programming eventually came under the umbrella of Holland College in 1979. Cummings says that prior to 1979, the Department was using the elementary wing of the West Prince O’Leary Elementary and High School. The Department had Kindergarten-Grade 12 academic support and learning opportunities available for adults, with up to 120 students enrolled at high points.

The Department moved the program to the O’Leary Lions Club in 1976, and at that venue, it had four classrooms downstairs and three classrooms upstairs. The Department remained at that location until finally relocating to Westisle Composite High School, when the high school opened in 1979, having been given the whole back wing of the high school for the program. In 1979, this move to Westisle was also a transfer of the program to Holland College.

In 1993, the adult-continuing education program made another physical move to a local hotel and resort called the Rodd (located in West Prince county), this move due to the air quality at Westisle Composite High School. At this time, Holland College had four classes there, specified for adults and post-secondary students. When the Charlottetown-based Tremploy Inc. (a non-profit, registered, charitable, community-based organization that provides vocational training and support for individuals with intellectual disabilities) decided to open a center in O’Leary, P.E.I. (also located in West Prince County), they approached Holland College with the proposal, as they wanted to start a pilot project in the western area of P.E.I. In January of 1993, Tremploy Inc. also invited Cummings to come and head up the project. She opted out of this position, as she had full-time work at the time with Holland College (and this offer pitched by Tremploy Inc. was for a pilot project, which did not interest her).

Cummings recounts that at different times, Tremploy Inc. would call her and ask if she had anyone she could recommend to be the start-up person for their proposal. As she was not available or interested, she would always say ‘no’. However, when the Holland College adult education program moved back to Westisle in 1996, it was at this time that Cummings was pursued again by Tremploy Inc. to facilitate the Career Bridges, which she decided to do…leaving behind adult education for good (M.L. Cummings, personal communication, May 28, 2018).

Current Work Environment

When the West Prince Center of Holland College was no longer existing as a career service center (due to centralization of services in Charlottetown, P.E.I.), Cummings was left with no employment. She contacted Tremploy Inc., not realizing that someone was retiring from a position there. In November of 1996, she had begun travelling to Charlottetown to see what the program was all about. By January of 1997, the West Prince Center (formally under the umbrella of Holland College) became known as Career Bridges (which it is still known as, today), begun with the support of Tremploy Inc. In January of 1997, Cummings started facilitating that program in O’Leary, P.E.I., a job which she still holds today.

The focus in the new program was different than the focus in the programming offered at Holland College (which was dedicated toward helping students upgrade academic coursework in preparation for more formal training through post-secondary institutions). Career Bridges, on the other hand, was (and is) focused on providing vocational assessment and guidance for people considering a career change or further training. The services that Career Bridges provides are: identification of the client’s interests, aptitudes, and abilities; provision of individual and group career facilitation; arrangement of career exposure; establishment of goal-setting and future employment paths; and assistance for clients with resume writing, cover letter writing, interview strategies, and job search skills. The 12-week program (broken into two 6-week cycles) is focused on three distinct phases:

1. Phase 1: Diagnostic/ Self Assessment/Skills Enhancement (happens within the first 6 weeks)

-this phase identifies the client’s interests, aptitudes, and abilities. It also provides information regarding career choices, career options or planning career development. Group and individual career guidance assists the client at this time to gain a higher level of self understanding and to plan a career path based on informed decisions.

Phase 2: Job Search/ Employability Skills (also happens within the first 6 weeks)

• this phase uses group activities, audio visual resources, computer programs and resource materials so as to assist the clients in gaining skills needed to find and retain a job.

Phase 3: Work Exposure (happens during the last 6 weeks of the program)

-this phase provides clients the opportunity to confirm their occupational interests.

Cummings says that the clients and program instructors work together to identify an appropriate work environment, merging the diagnostic/self-assessment phase with work exposure experiences, so as to allow the clients to finalize their career plans (M.L. Cummings, personal communication, May 28, 2018).

Career Services Offered