Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the role of the guidance counsellor is multifaceted and includes delivery of classroom guidance, group sessions and one-to-one meetings. Guidance-support is provided to students in relation to personal, social, educational and career guidance. A dual qualification is required to work as a guidance counsellor in our post-primary schools. Guidance counsellors must hold an appropriate teaching qualification (through route 2 as recognised by the Teaching Council attracting those terms & conditions and rates of pay) and hold an appropriate guidance counselling qualification appropriate to the post-primary sector in line with the Programme Recognition Framework for guidance. This policy is well-settled and long-standing and is outlined in circulars 0008/2024, 0009/2024, 00010/2024 and 0044/2019. Schools are permitted however to employ persons without a route 2 qualification on a temporary basis where no fully qualified teacher is available. A number of schools employ people to work as guidance counsellors in post-primary schools on this basis. These guidance counsellors have formed a group and asked the Department to provide a pathway that would allow them to qualify to work in schools as Guidance Counsellors on a permanent basis enjoying the same terms and conditions as fully qualified (route 2) teachers.

As the matter spans a range of complex issues, several officials in my Department researched and considered the issues and the points made by this group over a number of months. While a number of options were explored, it was ultimately considered that the optimal solution would be to develop a pathway whereby the group members could undertake a course of study to add credits to their Level 8 degrees in a subject that would be recognised by the Teaching Council, thereby enabling them to subsequently apply for and undertake teacher-training.

In discussions with Higher Education Institutions on provision of new guidance programmes to increase supply, the Department was advised that the key requirement to provide any new course is that there would be a pipeline of demand and that the course provision would be viable.

In order to determine what the course might look like and whether it would be viable with sufficient demand, it was considered necessary to ascertain the nature of the level 8 degrees held by the group and whether they comprised any curricular subjects.

My officials issued a survey to the group members to gather this data. All the group members completed the survey and my officials have analysed the findings. A response was issued to the GUESS group by letter on 11th April. This letter explained the findings of the survey and provided an evidenced-based response to the GUESS members. It is concluded that it is not presently viable for an ‘add-on’ upskilling programme to be designed for the GUESS cohort. However, an extremely positive finding of this survey is that at least 43% of GUESS members are already eligible to pursue a Route 2 registration with the Teaching Council, subsequent to undertaking teacher-training. For those who wish to pursue this course of action, a PME incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers who complete their PME during 2024.