Diploma of Counselling – CHC51015

Courses

Diploma of Counselling – CHC51015, CRICOS Code: 0100495

The Diploma of Counselling course is designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge required to undertake generic counselling work using established counselling modalities. They learn communication, micro-counselling and interviewing skills and draw on varied counselling therapies to assist clients.

At the Diploma (AQF 5) level:

  • competency involves the self-directed application of knowledge with substantial depth in some areas and a range of technical and other related skills to tasks, roles, and functions in both varied and highly specific contexts
  • competencies are normally used independently and both routinely and non-routinely
  • judgment is required in planning and selecting appropriate services, techniques and work organisation for self and others
  • competencies are likely to be applied under broad guidance
  • the work of others may be supervised or teams guided
  • responsibility for the planning and management of the work of others may be involved

COURSE OUTCOMES

At the conclusion of the diploma students will be equipped:

  • To undertake counselling roles who work clients on personal and psychological issues with the skills and knowledge within the framework.
  • To work in defined and supported counselling roles in established agencies.
  • To use communication skills including micro-counselling and interviewing skills to assist clients.
  • To draw on varied counselling therapies to client’s various issues.

DURATION AND REQUIREMENTS

The Diploma course can be completed in 2 years studied full-time. Part-time study options are available. Each subject takes 80 hrs on average to complete. Students need to spend around 17 hours in studying a week. To complete the Diploma of counselling, 17 units of competency are required including 13 core units and 4 elective units. (see course structure part below for the specific descriptions)

TRAINING LOCATION AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES

This course is delivered in Canberra (Gate 2, Randwick Rd, Lyneham 2602), Melbourne (5 Burwood rd, VIC), Brisbane (124 Nemies Rd, Runcorn QLD 4113) and Sydney (9 Blaxland Road Rhodes NSW 2138). In each campus, there is projector, table, chairs, tea area, kitchen, library, air conditioning and resting area.

MODE OF DELIVERY

The training and assessment are delivered online or mixture of different modes for local or oversea students. However, international program in Australia is delivered in a mixture mode (face to face mostly and little bit of online)

TARGET GROUP

This course was designed to train Korean and other ethnic communities. The training will be delivered in their own languages. A recognition of prior learning strategy may be utilised for students with previous qualification, knowledge, skills and work experience.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Diploma of Counselling

To gain entry into CHC51015 Diploma of Counselling, candidates should over 18 years of age and have a high school certificate, its equivalent. It is recommended that candidates have relevant experience to indicate likely success at this level of qualification in a job role involving:

  • The self-directed application of knowledge with substantial depth in some areas
  • The exercise of independent judgement and decision-making
  • The application of relevant technical and other skills.

TRAINING PROCESS

In general terms, training will be provided through:

a) Intensive seminars that are held every term
b) Private study time for each subject
c) One-on-one mentoring by a qualified trainer
     This may be either over the phone or skype, in the Classes,
d) Small group discussion or peer supervision with a qualified trainer
e) Counselling practice in organization or in private practice
f) Professional supervision on counselling practice.
g) Completion of a range of assignments such as Journals, Written Assesments, Essays, Report, Open book test, Oral test, Presentation, Small group discussion, Counselling Practice, Interview or Reading Materials.
h) All counselling practice are done in class within the classmates through learning
partners. (In some cases, students can get help from voluntary client who can act
as a client in scenarios)

ASSESSMENT POLICIES

Each unit was designed for accredited training in counselling with vocational outcomes. It will train students to achieve learning outcomes and units of competency through proper training and assessment process and tools.
Each assessment method is designed to cover units of competency.
Students who successfully completed all the requirements of each training stage graduate the diploma course which means they obtain the result of “Competent” in all subjects.
Final Academic Transcripts will show results as either

C Competent
NYC Not Yet Competent.

When students are satisfactory in all assessments, they receive the result of “Competent”
When they are not satisfactory in an assessment aspect, they will receive “Not Yet Competent” A student whose result for an assessment item is “Not Yet Competent” will have a second chance to resubmit the assignment. If the result of the second submitted assignment is still not satisfactory, the student will be required to pay a penalty and may resubmit their assignment as their last chance. If the student does not pass the subject and wish to continue studies, they will be required to re-enrol into that subject an will be charged in full for those units.

ACC follows principles of assessment and rules of evidence in assessment process in line with the standards of NVR RTO
Principles of assessment are required to ensure quality outcomes. Assessments should be fair, flexible, valid and reliable as follows:

  1. Fairness: Fairness requires consideration of the individual candidate’s needs and characteristics, and any reasonable adjustments that need to be applied to take account of them. It requires clear communication between the assessor and the candidate to ensure that the candidate is fully informed about, understands, and is able to participate in, the assessment process, and agrees that the process is appropriate. It also includes an opportunity for the person being assessed to challenge the result of the assessment and to be reassessed if necessary.
  2. Flexible: To be flexible, assessment should reflect the candidate’s needs; provide for recognition of competencies no matter how, where or when they have been acquired; draw on a range of methods appropriate to the context, competency and the candidate; and, support continuous competency development.
  3. Validity: There are five major types of validity: face, content, criterion (i.e. predictive and concurrent), construct and consequential. In general, validity is concerned with the appropriateness of the inferences, use and consequences that result from the assessment. In simple terms, it is concerned with the extent to which an assessment decision about a candidate (e.g. competent/not yet competent, a grade and/or a mark), based on the evidence of performance by the candidate, is justified. It requires determining conditions that weaken the truthfulness of the decision, exploring alternative explanations for good or poor performance, and feeding them back into the assessment process to reduce errors when making inferences about competence.
    Unlike reliability, validity is not simply a property of the assessment tool. As such, an assessment tool designed for a particular purpose and target group may not necessarily lead to valid interpretations of performance and assessment decisions if the tool was used for a different purpose and/or target group
  4. Reliability: There are five types of reliability: internal consistency; parallel forms; split-half; inter-rater; and, intra-rater. In general, reliability is an estimate of how accurate or precise the task is as a measurement instrument. Reliability is concerned with how much error is included in the evidence.

Rules of Evidence are closely related to the principles of assessment and provide guidance on the collection of evidence to ensure that it is valid, sufficient, authentic and current as follows:

  1. Validity: see Principles of Assessment.
  2. Sufficiency: Sufficiency relates to the quality and quantity of evidence assessed. It requires collection of enough appropriate evidence to ensure that all aspects of competency have been satisfied and that competency can be demonstrated repeatedly. Supplementary sources of evidence may be necessary. The specific evidence requirements of each unit of competency provide advice on sufficiency.
  3. Authenticity: To accept evidence as authentic, an assessor must be assured that the evidence presented for assessment is the candidate’s own work.
  4. Currency: Currency relates to the age of the evidence presented by candidates to demonstrate that they are still competent. Competency requires demonstration of current performance, so the evidence must be from either the present or the very recent past.

EQUITY AND ACCESS CONSIDERATION

The Australian College of Christianity is highly committed to equity and access policy to help students with disabilities who need help in completing the course. ACC may play a role in overcoming barriers or provide access to external services. If necessary, course delivery and assessing methods may be modified to take into account of their circumstances while maintaining integrity of the unit of competency. (See ‘ Students with Special Needs’ on your student handbook for the further details.)

COURSE COMPETENCIES

The following course-specific competencies are achieved through the completion of the Diploma of Counselling.

Core Units

National Code Competency
CHCCCS019 Recognise and respond to crisis situations
CHCCSL001 Establish and confirm the counselling relationship
CHCCSL002 Apply specialist interpersonal and counselling interview skills
CHCCSL003 Facilitate the counselling relationship and process
CHCCSL004 Research and apply personality and development theories
CHCCSL005 Apply learning theories in counselling
CHCCSL006 Select and use counselling therapies
CHCCSL007 Support counselling clients in decision-making processes
CHCCSM013 Facilitate and review case management
CHCDIV001 Work with diverse people
CHCDIV002 Promote Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultural safety
CHCLEG001 Work legally and ethically
CHCPRP003 Reflect on and improve own professional practice

Elective Units

 

National Code Competency
CHCCCS017 Provide loss and grief support
CHCMHS001 Work with people with mental health issues
CHCGRP002 Plan and conduct group activities
CHCCCS038 Facilitate the empowerment of people receiving support

COURSE STRUCTURE

To achieve the Diploma of Counselling, students must satisfactorily complete the subjects in the following table. the Diploma of Counselling course includes 17 subjects (13 units of core units and 4 units of elective units ), an approximate 1200 hours of study.

Subject Code Name Subject length Competency Code Hours
DCCC019 Crisis counselling 1 Term CHCCCS019 125 hrs
DCCR001 Counselling Relationship 1 Term CHCCSL001 125 hrs
DCCC002 Counselling communication 1 Term CHCCSL002 125 hrs
DCPS037 Counsellling Process and Client support 1 Term CHCCSL003,CHCCSL007 125 hrs
DCDT004 Development theories 1 Term CHCCSL004 125 hrs
DCLT005 Learning theories 1 Term CHCCSL005 125 hrs
DCCT006 Counselling therapies 2 Terms CHCCSL006 125 hrs
DCCM005 Case Management 1 Term CHCCSM013 125 hrs
DCMC012 Cross-culture Counselling 1 Term CHCDIV001,CHCDIV002 125 hrs
DCCE001 Counselling ethics 1 Term CHCLEG001 125 hrs
DCRI003 Assement and Improvement in Professional Practice 1 Term CHCPRP003 125 hrs
Electives
DCOP001 The old counselling 1  Term CHCCCS038 125 hrs
DCGC017 Grief counselling 1 Term CHCCCS017 125 hrs
DCGC002 Group Counselling 1 Term CHCGRP002 125 hrs
DCMI001 Mental Health 1 Term CHCMHS001 125 hrs

PATHWAYS

Not Applicable

COURSE DATES

General and OSP Courses(1 week later only for students in Canberra)