Educational Advisor: What Are Your Roles?

The figure of the educational advisor is very important. For this reason, it is present in all centers designed to train students who attend high school, bachelor’s degree or other training activity (professional training centers). However, in most cases, the work of this professional is unknown. What does he really do?

Perhaps when we were students, we saw the guidance counselor as a figure we never or rarely met. We knew little or nothing about his work. Unfortunately even today, in many schools the advisor is a kind of ghost figure, who orders and arranges, but does not appear. Precisely because their functions are often hidden, today we want to dedicate this article to describing them.

The functions of the guidance counselor

The guidance counselor can be seen as a professional who advises and helps students to think about their professional future. Most of all, when he doesn’t know what to study, which electives to choose, or the career path that, after finishing high school, he will pursue. But this is only a small part of its functions.

prevent school failure

School failure is a situation that worries both families and teachers.   In these cases, the role of the educational advisor is fundamental.

This professional develops individual assistance programs for students and advises them. On many occasions, the problem of school failure is related to family factors. For this reason, the guidance counselor will try to meet with the family to explain what is happening. In other words, it seeks the necessary support for the student to complete their course.

Make curriculum adaptations

Curriculum adaptations are also a competence that corresponds to the educational advisor. This occurs, for example, when there are students who find it difficult to follow the class, diagnosed with ADHD or who have some other type of problem (anxiety, visual disturbance, etc.). For those students with special needs, the following measures can be taken:

• Eliminate physical barriers: provide the center with facilities and resources that allow access to students who may be, for example, in a wheelchair.
• Eliminate communication barriers : in the case of a student who is blind, texts in braille will be provided so that he/she can study.
• Reinforcement classes: Students will go to a support class, in which educational resources tailored to their needs will be provided. This is good for students with very advanced abilities, as well as for those with attention deficits, for example.

Provide psychopedagogical counseling

Another of the educational advisor’s important functions is to provide psycho-pedagogical counseling, both for teachers and for families. In addition, it is the responsibility of the advisor to provide the resources and methods necessary to ensure that each student’s individualized strategy is successfully carried out.

This part, moreover, is not fixed. Student assessment will be ongoing and it is likely that certain modifications will be made. Likewise, counseling families can favor the student to seek a professional, such as a psychologist, who can accurately assess and diagnose him.

The importance of the educational advisor

Certainly we have already realized that the figure of the educational advisor is fundamental in secondary schools. However, let’s compile some of your most important tasks into a sort of summary:

• Advising students and families: the aim is to improve the educational quality provided by the school.
• Study and plan educational needs individually.
• Hold regular meetings with family members and teachers to provide them with the resources needed for the student to improve their performance.
• Observe student progress to introduce modifications and improvements.

We can now discard the beliefs that made us think that the guidance counselor had no important role within schools. As we have seen, their work is important and, ultimately, they are always focused on improving the services offered to students. Did you know what the functions of a guidance counselor were? What did you think about them before reading this article?