Evaluation and Research on the Competence of College Counselors Using Competency Model
ABSTRACT
In order to better build the team of college counselors and improve the level of teaching management in colleges, it is necessary to evaluate the ability of counselors. However, the evaluation methods used at present are still few. In this paper, the competency model was employed to evaluate the ability of college counselors. The competency traits were first selected based on the work content of college counselors and related literature and then screened through a questionnaire survey. A competency model was established and applied to evaluate and train counselors' abilities in College A. The evaluation results of the counselors' competence before and after the training were analyzed. The results showed that after the training, the counselors improved significantly in the six competency traits ideological education knowledge, mental health education knowledge, employment guidance knowledge, crisis handling ability, responsibility consciousness, and stress resistance (p < 0.05). There were significant differences in traits such as ideological education knowledge and employment guidance knowledge between the junior counselors and the middle and senior counselors before the training (p < 0.05). The difference between counselors with different titles narrowed after training, and there were only significant differences in employment guidance knowledge and crisis handling ability (p < 0.05). The comparison results verify that the competency model is reliable in evaluating the ability of college counselors and can be applied in actual colleges.
1 Introduction
College counselors are one of the most contact teachers in the process of college students' study and life, and there is a very close relationship with college students, which has a great impact on the ideological and political education of college students. The ability of college counselors is directly related to the effectiveness of college talent cultivation. With the continuous expansion of college enrollment and the continuous improvement of the society's demand for talent training [1], more requirements are put forward for the team of counselors, and more attention is gradually paid to the selection and evaluation of counselors [2]. The competency model refers to the sum of the competencies required for a role, position, or post [3]. It has been successfully applied in education [4], health care [5], finance [6], and other industries, providing reliable support for talent selection, training [7], and evaluation [8]. Aiming at how to select, assess, and cultivate competitive engineering project managers, Wang et al. [9] established a competency model for Chinese international engineering project managers using an improved multi-attribute decision-making method and evaluated five candidates from a Chinese enterprise. Kuribara et al. [10] developed a competency model for nurses working with patients receiving mechanical ventilation or veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) by establishing a competency basis based on three rounds of the Delphi survey. In order to improve the engineering ability of undergraduate students majoring in robotics engineering, Zhang et al. [11] proposed a competency model for robotics engineering and applied it to two groups of students. Through experiments, they found that the model could help students more clearly understand their ability and improve their comprehensive ability. Taking 350 students as samples, Al-Qadhi [12] used the statistic package for social science (SPSS) and structural equation modeling to analyze the data and find out the factors that have a strong impact on the core competitiveness of employees. Moreover, a competency model was developed for technicians in the oil and gas industry in Yemen. The competency model has also been applied to the management of teaching staff in colleges [13], but there is little research on counselors. Research on the evaluation of counselors' abilities is also relatively rare. The construction of counselor teams is also an important part of human resource management in colleges. This paper used the competency model to further clarify the competency characteristics of counselors and verified the effectiveness of the model in the evaluation of counselors' ability through comparative experiments, providing clear criteria for the evaluation and selection of college counselors and promoting their enthusiasm for self-improvement. This research is conducive to promoting the professionalization, specialization, and modernization of the college counselor team and establishing a human resource management system for the teaching staff in colleges guided by the competency model. Moreover, this article provides some theoretical support for the management and optimization of actual college teacher teams, which is beneficial in promoting the scientific and fair cultivation of talents.
2 Evaluation of College Counselors' Ability
- Ideological, ethical, and legal education
- Crisis handling
- Employment guidance
In addition to caring about college students' daily study and life, counselors should help college students make reasonable career planning, provide effective information for them to choose jobs and employment, guide them to form a correct employment view, and provide strong support for them to move from school to society.
In view of the importance and complexity of the counselor's work, it is particularly important to evaluate the counselor's ability. However, in the current management of colleges, there are few evaluation mechanisms for counselors' work, and most evaluation mechanisms are for teachers or administrative personnel, ignoring the specificity of counselors' work and failing to conduct a scientific and comprehensive evaluation of counselors' ability. Moreover, the existing evaluation mechanisms have less incentive effect on counselors and are difficult to guide the training of counselors' ability.
3 The Establishment of the Competency Model for College Counselors
In view of the deficiency of the current college counselors' ability evaluation, this paper uses the competency model to further evaluate the counselors' ability. Firstly, based on the literature analysis method, traits were screened from relevant literature by using “counselor competency” as the keyword, combined with the counselor's work content, and taking into account the availability and scientificity of indicators. According to the principle of proximity, taking counselors from College A as the subjects, interviews were conducted to understand the current job content of counselors, the handling capacity of emergencies, and the difficulties and thoughts encountered in the working process. The interview content was sorted out, and the key information was extracted from it. Then, combined with the traits screened by literature, they were summarized into three dimensions, and the initially screened competency traits were obtained.
- Very unimportant,
- Not very important,
- Moderately important,
- Relatively important,
- Very important.
Then, 131 questionnaires were recycled, among which 124 were valid, and the effective questionnaire rate was 95%. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out on the results in SPSS21.0 [15], and the characteristics with an average score lower than 3 were excluded. The competency traits shown in Table 2 were obtained.
| Competency dimension | Competency trait |
|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | Knowledge of ideological education |
| Knowledge of mental health education | |
| Humanistic quality education knowledge | |
| Knowledge of employment guidance | |
| Communication and coordination skills | |
| Crisis management ability | |
| Ability to perform work | |
| Ability of language expression | |
| Teaching and research ability | |
| Professional quality | Fair and impartial |
| Dedication | |
| Sense of innovation | |
| Sense of responsibility | |
| Be a model for others | |
| Personal trait | High energy |
| Patient and meticulous | |
| Wide range of interests | |
| Be proactive | |
| Be modest and cautious | |
| Caring for others | |
| Affinity | |
| Crush resistance |
| Competency dimension | Competency trait | Average | Standard deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | Knowledge of ideological education | 3.872 | 0.825 |
| Knowledge of mental health education | 3.785 | 0.452 | |
| Humanistic quality education knowledge | 3.652 | 0.625 | |
| Knowledge of employment guidance | 3.741 | 0.325 | |
| Communication and coordination skills | 3.652 | 0.521 | |
| Crisis management ability | 3.596 | 0.416 | |
| Professional quality | Fair and impartial | 3.771 | 0.756 |
| Dedication | 3.456 | 0.857 | |
| Sense of responsibility | 3.658 | 0.463 | |
| Be a model for others | 3.436 | 0.495 | |
| Personal trait | High energy | 3.325 | 0.368 |
| Patient and meticulous | 3.052 | 0.264 | |
| Affinity | 3.125 | 0.665 | |
| Crush resistance | 3.224 | 0.372 |
The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested [16] (Tables 3 and 4).
| Cronbach's α | Number of terms | |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | 0.95 | 6 |
| Professional quality | 0.93 | 4 |
| Personal traits | 0.92 | 4 |
| Overall | 0.93 | 14 |
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) | 0.94 |
| Bartlett | 21521.26 |
| Degrees of freedom | 78 |
| Significance | 0.00 |
Combined with Tables 3 and 4, it can be found that the reliability of the questionnaire was above 0.9, and the KMO value was 0.94, which exhibited good reliability and validity. Therefore, the questionnaire survey results can be applied. Based on Table 2, the competency model of college counselors was obtained (Figure 1).
4 Evaluation of Counselors' Competence Based on the Competency Model
4.1 Current Situation and Questionnaire Survey of Counselors in College A
There were 137 counselors in College A. Their basic situation is presented in Table 5.
| Category | Number of people | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | 68 | 49.64% |
| Female | 69 | 50.36% | |
| Age | Under 30 | 81 | 59.12% |
| 31–40 | 47 | 34.31% | |
| Over 40 | 9 | 6.57% | |
| Educational background | Doctor's degree | 45 | 32.85% |
| Master's degree | 51 | 37.23% | |
| Bachelor's degree | 41 | 29.93% | |
| Professional title | Middle and senior titles | 63 | 45.99% |
| Junior title | 74 | 54.01% |
There were slightly more female counselors than male counselors in College A. Moreover, their age was relatively low overall. The counselors under 30 accounted for 59.12%, the counselors between 31 and 40 accounted for 34.31%, and the counselors over 40 accounted for only 6.57%. In terms of educational background, the proportion of counselors with a doctorate degree, a master's degree, and a bachelor's degree was 32.85%, 37.23%, and 29.93%, respectively, which showed a balanced distribution. From the perspective of professional titles, the number of counselors with a junior title was slightly more than that with middle and senior titles (54.01% vs. 45.99%).
- Very poor,
- Relatively poor,
- Moderate,
- Relatively good,
- Very good.
Counselors completed self-assessment through questionnaires before and after the ability training. Totally, 120 questionnaires were collected, and 116 were valid, with an effective questionnaire rate of 96%. SPSS 21.0 was used for statistical analysis of the questionnaire results, and the evaluation results of the counselors' ability were all represented by the mean ± standard deviation. The difference between the ability evaluation results before and after the training was analyzed using the paired sample t-test [17]. The difference between the ability evaluation results of counselors with different professional titles was analyzed using the independent sample t-test [18]. The significance level was 0.05.
4.2 Model-Oriented Ability Training
- Identify training needs
- Innovate training form
- Improve training evaluation
Previously, College A seldom conducted post-training evaluations after training, so it was not enough to master the training effect, and the counselors involved in the training were not active in the training. The competency model was used to evaluate the training of the counselors to understand their ability improvement in the training process.
4.3 Comparison of Evaluation Results Before and After the Training
As can be seen from Table 6, compared with before training, after training, counselors showed significant differences in six competency traits: knowledge of ideological education, knowledge of mental health education, knowledge of employment guidance, crisis management ability, sense of responsibility, and crush resistance (p < 0.05). To be specific, before the training, the evaluation results of the counselors in employment guidance and crisis management ability were low, and the evaluation results of knowledge of ideological education and mental health education were also not high. According to the actual situation, the enrollment of most counselors only puts requirements on academic background and political status, with few restrictions on majors. The enrollment mainly focuses on fresh graduates, so the newly recruited counselors lacked the employment guidance ability and had a weak professional knowledge background. Moreover, they were young and inexperienced. After the training based on the competency model, various knowledge and skills were improved to some extent. This is because training pays more attention to knowledge and skills, and these contents are also easier to convey to counselors through lecturing. For example, in terms of crisis management ability, experienced counselors sharing the experiences and lessons from handling past crisis events with less experienced counselors can help them have a better response ability when facing crisis events. Before the training, the counselors' knowledge of humanistic quality education and communication and coordination skills was already at an upper-middle level, so the improvement was not significant.
| Before training | After training | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | 4.02 ± 0.52 | 4.46 ± 0.43 | 0.056 |
| Knowledge of ideological education | 4.07 ± 0.77 | 4.59 ± 0.47 | 0.008 |
| Knowledge of mental health education | 4.05 ± 0.68 | 4.61 ± 0.51 | 0.012 |
| Humanistic quality education knowledge | 4.22 ± 0.56 | 4.37 ± 0.43 | 0.528 |
| Knowledge of employment guidance | 3.45 ± 1.21 | 4.27 ± 0.74 | 0.005 |
| Communication and coordination skills | 4.33 ± 0.74 | 4.48 ± 0.66 | 0.416 |
| Crisis management ability | 3.98 ± 0.87 | 4.45 ± 0.61 | 0.015 |
| Professional quality | 4.29 ± 0.41 | 4.49 ± 0.39 | 0.077 |
| Fair and impartial | 4.31 ± 0.56 | 4.45 ± 0.37 | 0.412 |
| Dedication | 4.21 ± 0.52 | 4.33 ± 0.41 | 0.325 |
| Sense of responsibility | 4.08 ± 0.64 | 4.57 ± 0.52 | 0.016 |
| Be a role model | 4.55 ± 0.38 | 4.61 ± 0.27 | 0.525 |
| Personal trait | 4.07 ± 0.48 | 4.30 ± 0.51 | 0.456 |
| High energy | 4.12 ± 0.45 | 4.21 ± 0.36 | 0.121 |
| Patient and meticulous | 4.22 ± 0.37 | 4.24 ± 0.45 | 0.187 |
| Affinity | 4.16 ± 0.22 | 4.18 ± 0.33 | 0.521 |
| Crush resistance | 3.78 ± 1.23 | 4.58 ± 0.52 | 0.012 |
The counselors showed good professional quality and personal traits before the training, and after the training, they exhibited significant improvement in their sense of responsibility and crush resistance (p < 0.05), indicating that the training based on the competency model can effectively enhance the sense of responsibility of counselors and improve their crush resistance. But on the whole, the improvement effect of professional quality and personal traits was not as good as that of knowledge and skills. This might be because professional quality and personal traits are relatively subjective contents, and the improvement speed and effect vary from person to person and are more difficult to be significantly improved through training in a short period of time.
The ability evaluation results of the counselors with middle and senior professional titles and junior counselors were compared (Tables 7 and 8).
| Junior title | Middle and senior titles | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | 3.66 ± 0.78 | 4.38 ± 0.62 | 0.001 |
| Knowledge of ideological education | 3.87 ± 0.64 | 4.27 ± 0.55 | 0.002 |
| Knowledge of mental health education | 3.76 ± 0.56 | 4.34 ± 0.43 | 0.001 |
| Humanistic quality education knowledge | 3.91 ± 0.62 | 4.53 ± 0.55 | 0.011 |
| Knowledge of employment guidance | 3.11 ± 1.25 | 3.79 ± 0.87 | 0.001 |
| Communication and coordination skills | 3.87 ± 0.45 | 4.79 ± 0.55 | 0.051 |
| Crisis management ability | 3.42 ± 0.37 | 4.54 ± 0.41 | 0.007 |
| Professional quality | 4.11 ± 0.68 | 4.47 ± 0.51 | 0.057 |
| Fair and impartial | 4.11 ± 0.62 | 4.51 ± 0.45 | 0.045 |
| Dedication | 4.12 ± 0.55 | 4.30 ± 0.46 | 0.033 |
| Sense of responsibility | 3.88 ± 0.47 | 4.28 ± 0.41 | 0.024 |
| Be a model for others | 4.32 ± 0.62 | 4.78 ± 0.45 | 0.021 |
| Personal trait | 3.91 ± 0.57 | 4.23 ± 0.45 | 0.112 |
| High energy | 4.11 ± 0.66 | 4.13 ± 0.44 | 0.124 |
| Patient and meticulous | 4.12 ± 0.71 | 4.32 ± 0.33 | 0.078 |
| Affinity | 4.07 ± 0.45 | 4.25 ± 0.38 | 0.056 |
| Crush resistance | 3.35 ± 1.08 | 4.21 ± 0.56 | 0.052 |
| Junior professional title | Intermediate and senior titles | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | 4.22 ± 0.66 | 4.71 ± 0.32 | 0.054 |
| Knowledge of ideological education | 4.56 ± 0.78 | 4.62 ± 0.44 | 0.121 |
| Knowledge of mental health education | 4.45 ± 0.45 | 4.77 ± 0.42 | 0.133 |
| Humanistic quality education knowledge | 4.19 ± 0.64 | 4.55 ± 0.44 | 0.145 |
| Knowledge of employment guidance | 3.62 ± 0.71 | 4.92 ± 0.37 | 0.001 |
| Communication and coordination skills | 4.28 ± 0.55 | 4.68 ± 0.32 | 0.156 |
| Crisis management capability | 4.19 ± 0.61 | 4.71 ± 0.33 | 0.001 |
| Professional quality | 4.32 ± 0.45 | 4.67 ± 0.28 | 0.132 |
| Fair and impartial | 4.28 ± 0.42 | 4.62 ± 0.33 | 0.145 |
| Dedication | 4.21 ± 0.39 | 4.45 ± 0.32 | 0.089 |
| Sense of responsibility | 4.42 ± 0.41 | 4.72 ± 0.37 | 0.128 |
| Be a model for others | 4.35 ± 0.42 | 4.87 ± 0.35 | 0.099 |
| Personal trait | 4.11 ± 0.44 | 4.50 ± 0.33 | 0.125 |
| High energy | 4.07 ± 0.43 | 4.35 ± 0.32 | 0.087 |
| Patient and meticulous | 4.01 ± 0.42 | 4.47 ± 0.31 | 0.095 |
| Affinity | 4.05 ± 0.51 | 4.31 ± 0.33 | 0.133 |
| Crush resistance | 4.29 ± 0.68 | 4.87 ± 0.37 | 0.069 |
It can be seen that before training, the ability of counselors with different professional titles differed greatly, especially in knowledge and skills. The evaluation result of knowledge and skills of counselors with a junior professional title was only 3.66 ± 0.78 points, while that of counselors with middle and senior professional titles was 4.38 ± 0.62 points (p < 0.05). The difference between counselors with different titles in professional quality and personal traits was small overall, but remarkable differences were observed in the sense of responsibility and being a model for others. After the training, the differences between counselors with different professional titles were significantly reduced. According to Table 8, after the training, the two kinds of counselors only showed remarkable differences in employment guidance knowledge and crisis management ability, while the differences in the other traits were insignificant. In addition, the improvement of counselors with junior professional titles in various traits was greater than that of counselors with middle and senior titles.
The junior counselors showed a big gap with middle and senior counselors because they had insufficient teaching experience and weak professional skills and had not received relevant professional knowledge and skills training before becoming counselors. After targeted training, their abilities were improved. The reason for the lesser ability improvement of counselors with middle and senior professional titles may be that the counselors who owned richer teaching experience and had formed personal ways of dealing with problems in long-term work practice found it difficult to make rapid changes under training.
Based on the results, it can be found that in order to speed up the construction of the team of counselors, standardized and systematic training should be carried out by applying the competency model at the early stage of the counselors' entry to help young counselors quickly and effectively cultivate the relevant competencies needed to complete the work and better adapt to the teaching management work.
5 Conclusion
In this paper, the competency model was used to evaluate the ability of college counselors, and the designed model was applied to counselors from College A to point out their deficiencies in competency traits. Moreover, training methods based on the competency model were proposed. It was found that all the competency traits of college counselors were improved after training. The counselors showed remarkable differences in six competency traits: knowledge of ideological education, knowledge of mental health education, knowledge of employment guidance, crisis management ability, sense of responsibility, and crush resistance (p < 0.05). The differences between counselors with different professional titles were reduced, and only knowledge of employment guidance and crisis management ability had significant differences, indicating the feasibility of the model. The results also demonstrated that the competency model-based training method was effective in enhancing the competency traits of the counselors, which can guide the actual construction of college counselor teams. In addition to training, this model can also be applied to the recruitment and assessment of counselors and other links, providing a more scientific and fair standard for the recruitment of counselors and a more reasonable reference for the assessment of counselors' performance and improving the modernization level of the management of college counselors. However, there are still some limitations in this study. Only counselors from College A were investigated, resulting in a lack of universality of the results. In future work, the sample size will be further expanded. Interviews and investigations will be conducted targeting college counselors of different regions and types to deeply analyze the competency traits of counselors. Moreover, correlations between more factors, such as teaching age and research direction, and competency traits, will be considered to establish a more comprehensive competency model.
Author Contributions
Yuanyuan Yue: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
