Student Advising & Counseling - Certificates?

Many teachers find themselves in roles beyond just the classroom. And although we may not be formally part of the counseling departments at our schools (nor are we certified as school counselors), we do often need to do student advising and counseling. Some of us may even be asked to join a teams for these purposes.

Sometimes, we simply need to advise students about selecting courses or help them work towards certain tertiary education goals, but other times we may need to provide a friendly ear and offer guidance when students are going through a tough time.

Much of the time though, these competencies aren't taught in undergraduate education programs and may not even be the focus of postgraduate programs. So with that in mind, what kind of (postgraduate) certificate or diploma programs have you seen that help to develop any or all of these skills? I'm open to both university programs as well as professional certifications.

 

On the cheaper side, there are continuing education courses from Advancement Courses and VESi.

https://www.advancementcourses.com/
http://www.virtualeduc.com/courses.php

For academic advising, there are many online graduate certificate programs that pop up with a Google search. In regards to personal problems, one needs to tread lightly. Being a friendly ear doesn't require training, but a student should be referred to a licensed or certified professional when needed.

 

Appreciative Advising and Mental Health First Aid are two relatively quick credentials to obtain that provide significant dividends for faculty with advising responsibilities.

 

Thanks for the recommendation, Vonnegut. I started searching around, and it looks like there are a few places that offer such certificates and training.

Being that you recommended these, are there are any particular institutions you would recommend? Or are there any gold standard certs for these two areas of study?

Thanks in advance!

 

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing is the creator of the Mental Health First Aid certification. The course is offered by various organizations and government agencies in person, but some might be offering virtual classes now. I completed the certification course when I worked for a state health and human services agency. There's a certification specifically for higher education.

https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/population-focused-modules/higher-education/

The official Mental Health First Aid courses are free, but there are companies offering copycat versions for $30.

Red Cross has a Psychological First Aid online course.

https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/coronavirus-information/psychological-first-aid-online-course

 

Appreciative Advising:
For Appreciative Advising, most institutions build their own training and certificate program. There's not a gold standard external trainer/certification per se, any documented training that can prove you understand the foundation and application of it would be valuable. That being said, Florida Atlantic University has a very robust site based on it and even created a dedicate website and institute for it. Their materials and resources are being widely adopted by other institutions and you will see their model, charts, etc. are being incorporated in presentations and training events for it all over... effectively becoming the Gold Standard. They've even launched a dedicated website. That being said, I personally have not and do not plan on paying the $275 to become a Certified Appreciative Advisor. If you're early in your career, it may be a worthwhile resume booster if you're looking at Student Services/Advising positions, but I have never seen it listed as a requirement or even a preferred requirement. Currently, the benefit can be obtained by just being able to document an understanding of it. Granted, the model does have some criticism, and nothing is perfect.

https://www.appreciativeadvising.net/

https://www.fau.edu/education/centersandprograms/oae/

Mental Health First Aid:
The Gold Standard is from the credential agency on the link below. They've done a really wonderful job developing the program and marketing it. Initially they had some hiccups with the rollout, as their instructor qualification process was egregiously challenging. They've realized it was limiting their growth and eased up the requirements, which has expedited their growth. When I first looked at having a couple people become authorized as instructors, it was going to cost us over $20k. Now they've eased it up and we just had an LPC trained and authorized as an instructor, and I believe the total costs were around $3000.

Sanantone mentioned above that the courses themselves are free, and this is often technically true. Many Local Management Entities that deal with community mental health have been heavily offering this training in communities for years. But they're doing so through grant money. If I recall, the individual costs for training materials alone were around $20-30 per student. If you're not receiving grant funding to offset the training materials, instructor training, marketing/coordinating, and actual instructors time; you can easily see the credential being offered for $100-200 a person. The Red Cross has of course taken notice and is now offering their own version of this, as are a few other institutions/outfits.

https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/