Job overview
Hong Kong International School (HKIS) High School Counselors deliver a comprehensive, developmental guidance program that fosters students’ personal, social, spiritual, and academic growth. This program is grounded in internationally recognized standards of practice for school counseling in global education settings.Counselors are expected to uphold and embody the HKIS mission:
“Dedicating our minds to inquiry, our hearts to compassion, and our lives to service and global understanding.”
HKIS’s High School counseling model is intentionally designed to meet the diverse needs of students through a community-based structure. The High School is organized into four distinct communities, each supported by a dedicated pair of counselors. Together, these counselors serve approximately 50 students per grade level within their community. Counselors work collaboratively to:
• Advocate for students across academic, social/emotional, and college/career domains.
• Advise and support students through individual and group counseling, programming, and consultation.
• Build strong relationships with students, families, and faculty to foster a supportive and inclusive school environment.
This team-based approach strives to deliver personalized guidance and care for every student throughout their high school journey.
KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:
Professional Knowledge
• Demonstrates knowledge of SEL competencies (e.g., CASEL framework, ISCA standards), as well as academic and career exploration curricula to support existing HKIS programs as well as individual counseling practice
• Demonstrates knowledge of current child safeguarding policies and standards and is able to implement related strategies to protect the wellbeing of all students
• Understands the diverse interests, cultural backgrounds, assets, talents, and spiritual identities of students and families and is able to apply them to individual counseling and group seminar planning and delivery
• Demonstrates an awareness of current research in adolescent typical and atypical development, learning and life transitions
Requirements
• Experience working within an evidence-based secondary counseling model
• A growth mindset
• Experience in counseling in diverse, multicultural settings
• Excellent interpersonal skills to collaborate with faculty, parents, students, and administrators
• Have strong written and oral communication skills
• Have a working understanding of the ISCA and/ or ASCA counseling framework
• Have interest and experience in curriculum development and delivery, preferably in counseling curriculum
• Ability to collect and interpret individual and group data
• Skilled in the use of technology for student planning, documentation, and the virtual delivery of the counseling program
• Be enthusiastic about collaboration and professional development
• Commitment to child safeguarding
Responsibilities
• Collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, which includes classroom teachers, administrators, learning specialists, parents and outside providers
• Responsive services, including child protection & trauma crisis support
• Individual and small group solution-focused brief counseling
• Parent education and partnership (coffee morning, parenting course)
• Faculty consultation
• Faculty professional development, e.g., Child Protection and Mental Health
• Partner with administration to ensure smooth transitions for students joining and departing HKIS
• Delivery of SEL as well as mental health and well-being lessons
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS:
Education:
• Master's or advanced degree in Counseling or equivalent (School Counseling preferred)
Experience:
• Minimum of five years experience as a counselor in a school context at the relevant grade/age level.
• Experience leading and facilitating parent and student groups within a culturally diverse setting‚
• Teaching counseling curricula through a classroom/seminar delivery model
• Experience working with US, UK, and international college representatives and/ or admissions
• Knowledge of global university admissions practices, experience working with families throughout the full application process, and familiarity with university application platforms
Required skills:
● Technical proficiency with Microsoft suite, MAIA learning (or similar), PowerSchool, Schoology, and/or similar school-based learning management and student information systems
● Enthusiasm about teaching Counseling Seminars (grades 9-12), which is part of a comprehensive high school Wellbeing program
● Comfort with identifying strengths in self and others, and utilizing own strengths in a shared leadership model
● Positive mindset, growth-oriented, student-focused
Child Protection Statement:
• At HKIS, each child’s welfare is paramount. We act to ensure that our students enjoy the right to be protected from harm and exploitation and have their welfare safeguarded.
How to apply
Interested candidates, please click "Apply" via Schrole.
We invite you to learn more about our school and discover for yourself career opportunities in our remarkable HKIS community at https://www.hkis.edu.hk/
We look forward to hearing from you!