PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY AMONG SCHOOL AND NON-SCHOOL COUNSELLORS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined professional competency among school and non-school counsellors in Rivers State, Nigeria. The survey method was adopted. A simple random sampling technique was utilized to select one hundred and twenty (120) school and non-school counsellors for the study. The "Counsellor Competency Assessment Rating Scale" (CCARS). The scale has three (3) sections: competency in helping relationship, competency in client assessment, and competency in human growth and development was used to generate data. The t-test statistics was utilized to test the three null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that hypotheses one and three were rejected, while hypothesis two was accepted. Based on the
findings some recommendations were made. (1) The government of Nigeria should encourage CASSON to start National Certification Programmes for school and Agency counsellors. (2) Colleges and Universities offering programmes in counseling should encourage certification programmes for BSc and Masters Level. (3) Core areas in counselling should be included in all
Colleges and Universities curricula.