Career development is a lifelong process and journey. This is influenced by a wide variety of factors such as personal interests, abilities, values, personality, background, and circumstances. Career Counselling is a process designed to aid the client in choosing, changing, or leaving a career and is available at any stage in life.
One's career is one of the most critical aspects of adulthood, and embarking on a new career, whether for the first time, the second time, or any time thereafter, is a stressful and significant life event. The aim of Career counselling is firstly to define the client's unique abilities, skills, aptitudes, interest and passions. This can be done with the use of a variety of psychometric assessments and various interviews by the career coach and career advisor. Then, the career options revealed by the assessments and interviews are further discussed and investigated by client and counsellor, and the training or academic requirements for the suggested and chosen career paths are outlined. Thereafter the route that will be taken to advance on this career path or change is discussed and planned.
Career counselling services aid the client in finding a career that plays to their unique interests and strengths and guides the client towards the required route towards embarking on their career path. In the case of school-age children, the exploration of career options, deciding on subjects and the choosing of the correct tertiary education and training are essential to endeavouring on a successful career path. In the case of adults who are revisiting their career options, Ms Pretorius aims to aid the client in finding a career that is suitable or attainable with the available resources (such as financial and time considerations) to the client. Choosing the right career is an important task, but it is also a difficult one. It may not be easy to decide what type of job will be the best fit, and since career counselling helps people assess their skills, needs, and desires in order to find a career that works for them, this type of counselling is considered to be an essential step to take before deciding on a permanent career. Researching a wide variety of potential careers may be overwhelming, and information on the skill sets and education needed for a particular position may be contradictory or confusing to find. A career counsellor will often be able to provide valuable information in these areas and others. Ms Pretorius also provides student advisory services, pertaining to school program and student leadership coaching.