Academic support has two main branches: coaching and guidance. Pedagogy and empathy are the watchwords in these disciplines. As professions are booming, they are almost interdependent in order to be more effective. So, if some professionals practice them simultaneously, what are the concrete differences between them?
Educational guidance: focus on the professional future
Coaching and Educational Guidance are two distinct types of accompaniment in their methods and specific objectives. Academic guidance provides professional advice to optimize a child's choice of a category of jobs or studies. The accompaniment begins with an interview to determine the appropriate formula for the student's needs. The counsellor's responses are the result of either an orientation assessment with personality tests of the child, or a one-off orientation consultation. The services offered by these counselling specialists are essentially focused on supporting the student, according to his or her abilities and expectations, in the definition of his or her academic and professional project. However, various options can also be added, in particular support in writing a CV and covering letter or the administrative management of the registration file. On average, three to four sessions of 1h30 can be enough for a complete orientation assessment.
School coaching: "know yourself"
With an average of 4 to 10 sessions of 1h30, school coaching should reassure parents and offer quality support to students. This type of coaching is personalized since it intervenes mainly when the student faces repetitive difficulties in his schooling. Its objectives are to help the student become aware of the blockages and to promote, through a non-directive intervention, changes in behaviour. Acting thus on the motivation, self-confidence and autonomy of the student, the coach also accompanies him in the management of his time and emotions for an optimized learning. The coach's support allows the effective formulation of the student's professional project in order to trace an orientation path that harmoniously meets his objectives. Coaching must therefore take place within a clear and precise framework that is explained during the preliminary interview.
Two really complementary accompaniments
This dual expertise is often offered to young people by specialists. Indeed, to help students find their way, school guidance coaches must take into account their tastes and aptitudes. Since the ultimate goal of academic guidance is to serenely orient the student towards a profession that is adapted to him, coaching is the instrument used by specialists to allow the said student to acquire the necessary autonomy in this professional project. Middle school, high school and college students will thus be able to find in coaching the essential support to discover their potential and in academic orientation, the relevant answers for a more reliable access to their professional future.
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