THE CONSTRUCTIVIST MODEL OF COUNSELLING AND THE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON CAREER

Abstract

The career counselor helps the beneficiary to build self-confidence in order to make an adequate choice. Counseling may be seen as a complex action, providing multiple benefits both to the beneficiary and to the employer. On the student’s side, it’s about identifying expectations and making a choice. From the employer’s perspective, he/she would seek a candidate being confident in he’s/she’s capacities, well trained and able to fit in the organization. Within the constructivist model, the counselors can understand the student’s approach of this process and interact as partners. A fundamental constructivist principle is to value the beneficiary’s opinion (student’s in our case). The main aim of this study is to characterize the student’s perceptions trough two dimensions of choosing a future career: the importance of specific constructivist career counseling activities and the self-esteem role. The counselor’s perception on organizing counseling actions has been also documented, following the constructivist approach. The comparative analysis showed similar opinions on the value of the constructivist counseling model in the two respondents groups. This allows us to consider that there is openness toward the specific organizing and designing of counseling actions following the constructivist approach.