Student Counsellor

**Direct Reporting Line**:
Head: Student Experience

**Varsity College** is an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE). The IIE enjoys the reputation of being at the forefront of private higher education in South Africa and is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to provide higher education qualifications accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE).

**The IIE's Varsity College, Pretoria Campus has a vacancy for a Student Counsellor.**
**Job Purpose**:
The Student Counsellor is primarily responsible to provide primary psychological intervention / counselling to students in need. The are also responsible to design, develop and curate holistic awareness campaigns aligned to the common themes and needs of the students. The Student Counsellor provides support and assistance to the Student Wellness Specialist with community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism projects and initiatives, and to ensure sustainable relationships are developed across a diverse range of community engagement challenges and organisations**.**

**Duties and Responsibilities**:
**Provision of Student Emotional and Mental Counselling Services**:

- Provides individual primary counselling to students and explores/determines if the student should be referred for secondary counselling and unpacks their referral options if appropriate.
- Provides students with coping techniques and skills to deal with life challenges.
- Receives the signed consent form from the student prior to the commencement of the first counselling session.
- Establishes trustworthy relationships with students that opens channels for communication between the campus and students.
- Establishes a referral network for secondary counselling as the primary counsellor on campus. Refers students to the secondary counsellor on campus in the event of an emergency / conflict of interest / dual relationships.
- Creates awareness campaigns surrounding universal social and emotional issues and sources relevant guest speakers to add value to the campaign and address students on relevant topics.

**Creation, Rollout and Monitoring of Awareness Campaigns**
- In collaboration with the academic, academic operations and student experience teams, sets a bi-annual calendar for the following semester of awareness campaigns to promote and enhance awareness of mental health challenges.
- Identifies key NGO's / stakeholders, suggests possible campaigns and plans awareness campaigns accordingly.
- Designs, develops, implements and manages awareness programmes and campaigns and includes the Cares committee in assisting with marketing and creating awareness for these campaigns.

**Planning, Rollout and Monitoring of Community Engagement Programmes**
- Assists the Student Wellness Specialist with the facilitation of engagements between the students, staff and Non Government Organisation (NGO's) and identifies opportunities for Community Engagements, citizenship and volunteerism programmes.
- In collaboration with the academic, academic operations and student experience teams and the Student Wellness Specialist, establish and plans a bi-annual community engagement / Wellness calendar of events.
- Markets sustainable community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism programmes and encourages student participation in these programmes.
- Creates awareness amongst students regarding social and environmental issues.
- Manages logistics and implementation plans for the successful rollout of community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism programmes.
- Assist with empowering students with a sense of citizenship and encourages students to get involved in activities for community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism programmes in their area (e.g. by donating blood, donation drives and outreach projects).
- Provide volunteer opportunities for students to give back, impart knowledge and skills, to participate in community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism programmes.
- Co-ordinates communication and visibility of campaigns (including sharing posters on the WhatsApp community groups).
- Assists the Student Wellness Specialist with Identifying beneficiary organisations with students for community engagement, citizenship and volunteerism programmes.
- Facilitates, drives and organises the National CSI - KHUMO project on campus. Ensure collaboration with Academics, Academic Operations / Student Experience team and students.
- Assist the Student Wellness Specialist by identifying a KHUMO school in need and determine the school's needs analysis before the commencement of various projects at a school.
- Establish sustainable and strong relationships with identified school and ensure projects are maintained over a 3 year period.
- Manages the KHUMO budget and keeps track / records of the events / involvement with the KHUMO school and tracks spend allocated and utilised for various projects.

**Bursary and Budget Management**
- In