The professional competences of school counselors: the role that they represent from pupils' points of view

The present research shows a study carried out in Obligatory Secondary Education (OSE) centers in the city and province of Cordoba, Spain. The objective is to discover the role played by school counselors, their duties and the activities they develop. The type of help that the students request from these professionals and their relationships with students and families from the learners' perspective is also explored. The sample consisted of 328 students from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of OSE, distributed throughout 12 Infant and Primary Education Centers (IPEC) and Secondary Education Schools (SES), nine of which were public (76.2 %) and three private (23.8%). The method used in order to analyze the differences between the average scores obtained by the different groups was descriptive and comparative. The results support the idea that the students positively value the work done by their counselors, and that their relationships are also very satisfactory. However, the counselors' work is perceived differently depending on the type of center and gender. Finally, it can be concluded that the figure of the counselor is a key factor for the academic success of students, but it is necessary to delimit their duties to work according to the current regulations.