The duties of career counselors in adolescents and young adults with special needs

Career counselors work with other educators to meet the developmental needs of all learners with the inclusion of special needs. Inconsistencies in the roles of practicing guidance counselors have caused some specialists in education to begin to address the emerging role of the counselor regarding students with special needs, especially with respect to their career development. Since the level of happiness an individual exudes in life is closely related to the type of career the person chooses, and other career development activities relating to job retention and advancement, guidance counselors must endeavour to expose their students to several career development activities in order to help them to successfully, choose occupations, prepare for, enter into and progress in them. This paper discusses what career development is and some theories of career development. It also discusses factors that affect career choice. It highlights who the special needs persons are as well as the role of guidance counselors in career development of special needs adolescents and young persons.