Background

In China, counsellors play an important role in guiding students through their overseas education decision-making process, including long-term and short-term courses. These counsellors in international schools are the front-line representatives for UK education, supporting the recruitment of quality Chinese students and they are closely in touch with market sentiments.

The British Council provides regular professional development training opportunities for counsellors in China. The training sessions offer accurate and up to date information and resources to support in-country counsellors in developing their knowledge of UK education and building their capacity to support their students who are interested in studying in the UK.

British Council Study UK counsellors’ workshop

The British Council would like to invite 4 speakers from 4 UK higher education institutions to deliver presentations at the counsellor workshop in Shanghai on Wednesday, 10 March. The workshop are designed to provide professional development training to Chinese school counsellors and build trust between them and the UK through face-to-face communications. The British Council anticipates 80 Chinese counsellors from international schools in Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing and other nearby cities will attend.  

Draft Programme

1. Subject areas

• Objective: Help further counsellors’ understanding of two subject areas and how they can advise the right course for undergraduate students.  
• Please note that participating UK universities’ presentations should be from a general perspective, representing the whole of UK higher education, not only the individual universities’ courses.
• Presentations should cover the below points:
  • Subject area trends
  • Course structure (taking the course in your specific institution as an example)
  • Entry requirements (using the entry requirements of your institution as an example)
  • What students will learn and what kind of skills they can get
  • Employment prospects
  • Alumni experience sharing from a student perspective*

*Alumni experience sharing session

Participating institutions should select one alumni speaker to share their study experience, understanding of the subject area, employment experience and other key information that would help the audience of school counsellors to understand the subject area from student perspective.

The alumni may provide a pre-recorded video clip if unable to attend in person in Shanghai.

1. Admission procedures

The presentation should cover:

• The procedure in your institution after receiving applications through UCAS
• Timings and requirements for conditional and non-conditional offers

C. Employability

• Services offered by the careers office (taking your university’s careers office as an example)
• Student internships and placement opportunities and where to find them
• How students can make the most of links to industry through their university
• How students can best prepare for finding a job before returning to China
• How students can improve their soft skills for the workplace

A speaker from the university career office is preferred. If participating universities do not have a suitable speaker based in China, a video clip recorded by the careers office is acceptable.  

Benefits to the speaker and institution:

• an opportunity to meet and network with school counsellors in China
• an opportunity to raise your institution’s profile amongst school counsellors in China
• an opportunity to demonstrate your thought-leadership in specific subjects in UK higher education

Criteria for speaker selection

As the aim of this workshop is to build counsellors understanding and facilitate connections through face-to-face communications, speakers from UK institutions who are based in China are preferred.

The final speakers will be voted on by school counsellors in China. There will be two speakers on subject areas, one on admissions procedures and one on employability. There will be one candidate on each topic on a waiting list.

Please note that participating UK universities’ presentations should be from a general perspective, representing the whole of UK higher education, not only the individual universities’ courses.