Every year we welcome a number of trainees to join our counselling team and accept applications all year round. If you would like to be considered for a placement with us you can request an application form from [email protected]
The recruitment process will include:
- Competency and personal Interview to assess suitability for working with vulnerable young people
- Satisfactory DBS check
- Mandatory training in Safeguarding and GDPR
- Completion of at least one clinical supervision sessions before proceeding with clients
- Two written references
We will send you our placement agreement with the terms of the placement. It is important that you can meet all of our requirements and so we ask that you read the agreement carefully before making an application. Please note we require all of our trainee counsellors to be in weekly personal therapy for the duration of their training and encourage this beyond completion of qualification. We also ask that our trainees complete a course in working competently online with clients if this hasn’t been covered by their training provider.
We have a number of trainee counsellors, usually in their final year of study. We offer a robust support system of clinical supervision for all of our counsellors which includes one to one and group supervision each month. Signpost is a friendly team of counsellors, coaches, administrators and supervisors. We also offer opportunities for our trainee counsellors to help facilitate our groupwork with an experienced practitioner.
Ask yourself as a trainee – Do you want to fly?
Hello, my name is Linda and I have worked with Signpost for just over a year now as a Trainee Counsellor. I have to say that the year has flown by and that is purely down to the enjoyment and opportunities that I have had whilst working at Signpost.
My interview with Signpost really gave me the confidence of knowing that I had chosen the right place to do my trainee work. I was challenged with questions that really made me think and I received very welcoming encouragement to ask many questions myself, especially about the opportunity to ‘spread my wings’ whilst on placement which I knew I wanted to do. As a consequence, I was fortunate to be offered the position and accepted it readily.
I had a bumpy start to the placement as I broke my shoulder and arm a day after seeing my first client and couldn’t drive for months to see clients face to face! Despite only being with Signpost for a week, they were amazing at understanding my misfortune and helped to facilitate me back into work offering lots of care and support along the way. This meant a lot to me and really showed how much this organisation cares for the people who work for them (even for only one week at that point!) for which I am still incredibly grateful to this day.
Once I was back on the road, my placement took off. I had client placements filled each week and really enjoyed going into the office to see clients face to face, speaking and learning so much from the other counsellors present on the same shift pattern which was a real bonus. I feel a real part of the team at Signpost and have been to many of the social and training events which have been a tremendous opportunity. Speaking to my peers in other organisations, it is evident that Signpost is very proactive in developing staff and staying on top of opportunities in the local community. Supporting the local communities is important to me and for that reason, I am so proud to work for Signpost.
Being quite creative and open minded with trying new things, Signpost allowed me the opportunity to present to them the idea of running their first online psychoeducational workshop. Being a trainee I felt so privileged to have had their trust in me to do this and the idea became a reality. This led onto other ideas of creating workshops, this time face to face, and they too have been delivered over this summer with great success. Going forward, we have lots of ideas on how to advance these initiatives and again, Signpost is 100% behind the ideas and fully supportive.
You can see for yourself from this extract how open Signpost is to those who have creativity and ambition and want to move the charity forward in any way that they can, ensuring that you are fully supported along the way. If you want to spread your wings and fly and the opportunity to do so appeals to you, then I would definitely get in touch!
Contact [email protected] to request an application form.
