Guidance and Testing Services
To support UM in producing a quality transformative education, the Guidance and Testing Center envisions a self-directed & self-actualized individuals. This is concretized through its mission, which is to provide a helping and nurturing environment which shall develop the capacity of each individual for discovery, understanding, direction and actualization of oneself. To accomplish this mission, varied guidance and testing services are provided.
Orientation Services. The Life Span Theory of career development emphasizes the necessity of discovering the uniqueness of every client (Ho, et al 2008), hence the orientation on self awareness conducted by the Guidance Counselor. To make them aware and overcome possible difficulties in college life, enhancement seminars/sessions on Test Anxiety, Study Habit/Academic Survival, Time and Stress Management are provided.
Individual Inventory Services. The nature of career pattern is determined by the individual’s parental, socio-economic level, mental ability, education, skills, aptitude, personality and career mutiny. All these data are deemed necessary for career pathing, hence every student has a Student Personal Data Inventory (SPDI) Folder which includes pertinent records such as personal data, psychological test result and counseling reports. A database system for this is provided. Only the authorized guidance counselors can access on the personal and confidential records of each students. This system enhances follow-up services since the student’s profile can easily be traced.
Testing Services. Each occupation requires a characteristics pattern of abilities, aptitude, personality traits, and values, so psychological tests are administered and interpreted to the examinee(s). Results lead to career counseling and provision of interventions, either academic or personal, if necessary. Testing services are provided for the students so that they will be able to diagnose their academic strengths and weaknesses.
Identify their predominant personality traits and values ad link them with their own experiences and to their career. Specific psychological test administered per year level are indicated in the Testing Program.
Career Services. The process of career development is essentially that of developing and implementing occupational self-concepts. Career focus sessions, career enhancement programs, career testing, career counseling, and Career Professional Education are facilitated. Activities in each year level are reflected in the Career Planning and Development Program and in the Guidance Services Road Map.
Placement Services help prepare graduating students for the job search. The Office of the External Relation’s in coordination with the Guidance and Testing Center takes charges of this placement services. Pre-employment Seminar for Local Applicants (PESLA) and Job Affair are provided each school year. CAED 500, a Professional Career Education is offered to all graduating students to guide and prepare them for their professional career.
Counseling Services. This helps the client understand the self as part of career development and a prelude to career decision-making. Counselees; are either walk-in, call-in, or referral cases; individual/group. Walk-in for voluntary counselees; call-in is done when students are called-in for personal/career counseling.
The Guidance Counselor and the Psychometrist administer career counseling after each psychological test has been scored and interpreted. For academic guidance, Year-Level Advisers monitor and evaluate the student’s academic performance. In case of necessity, counselees are referred to the Guidance Counselor.
Information / Enrichment Services. Nobody can make appropriate decisions without the pertinent information. Most of the time, clients are unable to handle their difficulties because they lack information, hence this information services.
The types of information disseminated to clients are: personal-social, academic-educational, and vocational-occupational. For personal-social information, Anti-Drug Prevention Symposium is provided for the 1st year students: Morality on Sex Seminar for the second year: Anti-Abortion Campaign, for the 3rd year. For academic/educational, sessions/seminar on How to Beat Test Anxiety, Academic Survival, Study Habit were provided to the freshmen students.
For vocational-occupational, Seminars on How to Write a Winning Resume and How to Succeed in a Job Interview, Pre- Employment Seminar for Local Applicants (PESLA) and Job Fair are provided to the graduating students. Bulletin posting on employment possibilities or job openings is on-going. Aside from these activities, guidance activities that respond to the needs of the clienteles are prioritized. Methods of disseminating information are either seminar/workshops, symposium, film viewing, group process.
To ensure that everything will run smoothly, annual operational plan is done each College Guidance Counselor and Psychometrist every summer before the school year starts. All budgetary expenses are included in the annual operational plan. This is submitted to the VP Student Personnel Services for recommending approval: to the EVP Academic Affairs and EVP Operations for approval.