A Delphi Study: How Counselor Educators in Career Counseling Courses Prepare School Counselors to Address Career Readiness

This goal of this study is to understand the relationship between the preparation that career counseling courses at the post-secondary level provide school counselors and the implications it has on promoting career readiness. The Delphi method was used to garner consensus of a group of experts on how to prepare pre-service school counselors to conduct career counseling, and to promote and measure career readiness in their work with K-12 students. Seventeen leaders in the field of career counseling who are also counselor educators agreed to fully participate as experts in this study (round one n=5, round two n=7, round three n=6). Sixty-nine unique items related to the preparation of school counselors to conduct career counseling, to promote career readiness, and to measure the effectiveness of career readiness interventions were identified by the experts. The overall level of agreement in this study was 79.7 %. Items were compared and contrasted to the 12 Career Ready Practices (National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, 2013). Suggestions for counselor educators will be provided based on the results of this study