Postgraduate Diploma In Educational Guidance Counselling

at Maynooth University

This is a one-year full-time taught postgraduate diploma (Sept – August) which is designed to prepare qualified second-level teachers to provide and manage a school guidance counselling service. The programme is recognised by the Irish Department of Education and Skills, the National Centre for Guidance in Education and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors as a professional, international qualification in Guidance Counselling.

Participants attend Maynooth University one day per week (Friday) and engage in school placement one day per week (Monday-Thursday) in a school other than where they work. The programme begins with an early-September Induction Week. Intensive training in Psychometric Testing is scheduled for the October mid-term break (dates to be confirmed) and there will be 2/3 Saturday workshops in semester 1. A flexible work-based placement is scheduled for 3 days in June/July. There will be a 2-day May workshop in ‘Engaging with Difference’ as a preparation for this. 

 Programme participants are responsible for arranging the school placement component of the course (within an 85km radius of Maynooth) during which they work in close co-operation with the School Guidance Counsellor.