What qualification is required to be a school counselor?

Before entering the university to study the degree of psychology , you must gather a series of fundamental human and social qualities for the professions related to child psychology.

This profession demands some of the skills that we expose below:

• Sense of observation.
• Great listening and analysis skills.
• Know how to maintain an emotional distance with children and adolescents.
• Respect the deontological code of the profession.
• Be able to alert the appropriate social or medical services (situations of harassment, violence, behavioral disorders, precociousness …).
• Knowing how to work together with the teaching team.
• Show patience and empathy.

If you have some of these skills and want to put yourself at the service of children with educational difficulties in their learning, in situations of disability or who need advice in their educational orientation, being a psychologist may be your thing.

Once you have completed your high school studies, you can apply for a degree in psychology at any of the Spanish universities that offer it.

However, to be an educational counselor, in addition to the option of studying psychology, you also have Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, Pedagogy or Psychopedagogy.

After the degree, you will be able to continue your studies to take a specialization master’s degree such as the University Master’s Degree in Educational Guidance, which is offered at many universities. If your objective is to present yourself to the oppositions, the best thing is to play it safe to study the University Master’s Degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory Education and Baccalaureate, Professional Training and Language Teaching, under the specialty of educational guidance.

Unlike the other students of this master’s degree , counselors have professional competencies different from those of teachers and can carry out their work in the stages of early childhood and primary education.

Among its subjects, we find:

• Development, learning and education.
• Policies and educational guidance systems.
• Early care and family orientation.
• Academic and professional orientation.
• Psychopedagogical advice in teaching and learning processes.
• Diagnosis in educational orientation.
• Inclusive orientation in educational needs associated with sociocultural factors and high capacity.
• Inclusive guidance in learning difficulties.
• Psychoeducational intervention in developmental disorders.
• Innovation, research and change management in educational orientation.

These subjects may vary from one university to another, but generally they all cover the same aspects.

Once you have completed the master’s degree in teaching to enter the public educational guidance exchange, you will need to pass the competitive examinations, which are held every two years. This 2021, more than 1,000 places are offered for all of Spain, to be distributed among all the Autonomous Communities.

Once you have obtained your place, you will begin to work within the orientation team of a school or institute, where you can put everything you have studied into practice and gain experience. What qualification is required to be a school counselor?