Hok Yau Club Student Guidance Centre has taken the initiative in offering two student-counselling training courses.
One of the courses is directed at students and the other at teachers. They will be run during the next few months.
A Student Hotline has been operating for several years and has gained enthusiastic support from students. Through telephone conversations, a counsellor can listen to the student patiently and give him or her an appropriate response.
The first course is for students who wish to volunteer as counsellors on the hotline. It is the second year the course has been offered by the club.
The course covers self-exploration of the counsellor; psychology of youngsters; general concepts of counselling; techniques on counselling; understanding the school system, public examinations and skills on the use of available information. The training course runs from March 3 to April 28.
Those who complete the course will gain experience with the Student Hotline and receive a certificate if their results are satisfactory.
Iris Chong Yin-fai, a social worker at the Hok Yau Club Student Guidance Centre, said both courses will help meet the increased demand for student counselling which had grown in recent years.
