John Driscoll, president of Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, agrees. He says it’s never too early to begin guidance counselling.
Students face more career choices than before
« It’s meeting the young people and students where they’re at, » he said.
« It’s not necessarily talking about what career choices they’re going to make in primary. Enabling them to understand and look into the future and discover themselves is what’s important. »
The number of guidance counsellors per school varies based on location. In the Greater Toronto Area, 36 per cent of elementary schools had guidance counsellors while in Northern Ontario, only 11 per cent did.
Driscoll says that sometimes career guidance can take a back seat when counsellors are dealing with the mental health issues of students, administrative work or they have too many students to care for.
The study also looked at applied versus academic courses and the information parents and students have when choosing the streams. It found that those in applied courses are less likely to graduate from high school than those in the academic stream.