School Counsellor

School counsellors help students work through the personal, social and emotional difficulties that get in the way of their learning and wellbeing.

Median salary: $112,000; 3.8%vs last year, before tax
People employed: 4,100; 2.5%vs last year
Projected growth: +23.4%; to 2035
AI exposure*: Low; 2 out of 10
Average hours: 41/wk; +1h vs all jobs
Shortage status: Not in shortage; national

School counsellors work inside primary and secondary schools, usually within a small wellbeing team alongside year advisers, learning support staff and the school leadership.
The role sits between teaching and mental health work: in some states and school systems it is filled by registered psychologists, while elsewhere a qualified counsellor works with teaching staff.
Most weeks are split between individual sessions, group wellbeing programs, and meetings with teachers, parents and outside services such as child protection and community mental health.

How much do school counsellors earn?

The median full-time salary for a school counsellor is $112,000 per annum, before tax, up $23,200 since 2018.

Pay follows the school sector and the state or territory agreement, so a counsellor in a government school and one in an independent school with the same qualifications can sit on different scales. Where the role requires psychologist registration, the psychology classification usually lifts the salary, and experienced counsellors who take on a head of wellbeing or year level coordination role often receive an allowance on top. Part-time work is common, so the advertised full-time figures can be higher than what many counsellors actually take home.

Median annual salary, 2018–2028

Median annual salary (AUD/year), Modelled trend anchored to a real ABS Employee Earnings figure, interim years are indicative, not a real yearly series. 2025-2028 is a projection from that anchor using the real ABS Wage Price Index annual growth rate (3.2%, June quarter 2026), not a role-specific forecast., Estimate
Period	Median annual salary (AUD/year)	Change
2018	88,800	-
2019	91,800	+3,000
2020	95,800	+4,000
2021	100,000	+4,200
2022	103,400	+3,400
2023	107,900	+4,500
2024	112,000	+4,100
2025estimated	115,600	+3,600
2026estimated	119,300	+3,700
2027projected	123,100	+3,800
2028projected	127,000	+3,900

The median salary rose by $23,200 between 2018 and 2024; the dashed line shows a projection to 2028 based on the real ABS Wage Price Index growth rate, not a role-specific forecast.

Full school counsellor salary breakdown →

What does a school counsellor do day to day?

The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.

Sitting with a student through a first session that can turn from a friendship problem into a welfare concern in ten minutes
Writing case notes and risk assessments while the details are still fresh, often before the next appointment
Meeting with teachers, year advisers and parents who each want a different plan for the same student
Running a wellbeing or resilience session for a whole year group between individual appointments
Deciding whether a disclosure needs an immediate mandatory report or ongoing support, sometimes within the hour

What skills do school counsellors need?

Employers look for counselling and support work, pastoral care and wellbeing, student assessment and reporting, backed by Counselling assessment software (e.g. Welltrak, InsideOut Institute tools) fluency and strong written communication.

Specialist skills

Counselling and support work
Pastoral care and wellbeing
Student assessment and reporting

Software and tools

Counselling assessment software (e.g. Welltrak, InsideOut Institute tools)
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel)
Student information management systems (e.g. Compass, Sentral)
Psychological assessment tools

General skills

Written communication
Empathy and interpersonal care
Problem solving
Stakeholder management

Specialist skills

Counselling and support work: Individual sessions are the core of the week, and a school counsellor often has one hour to build enough trust that a teenager says what is actually going on. That can mean sitting with a student through a friendship problem that turns into a disclosure of harm, staying calm, and then deciding what happens next.
Pastoral care and wellbeing: Beyond one-to-one work, school counsellors run wellbeing and resilience programs for whole year groups, and watch for the students who slip out of class or go quiet after lunch. The aim is a school where a struggling student is noticed early rather than after a crisis.
Student assessment and reporting: Counsellors assess what sits behind a student's behaviour or falling marks, which may be anxiety, a learning difficulty or something at home, and write it up for teachers and parents. Case notes and risk assessments are written while the details are fresh, because year advisers or outside services may read them.

Software and tools

Counselling assessment software (e.g. Welltrak, InsideOut Institute tools): Used to record session notes, track a student's progress over time and store outcome measures, which matters when a case is handed to an outside service or reviewed by the wellbeing team.
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel): Word for reports and letters to parents, Excel for tracking which students are on the waiting list and how many sessions the wellbeing team has run this term.
Student information management systems (e.g. Compass, Sentral): These hold attendance, behaviour records and teacher notes, so a counsellor can check what happened in class before a session and log adjustments other staff need to follow.
Psychological assessment tools: Screening and assessment instruments such as anxiety or wellbeing scales, used mainly by counsellors with psychology registration to back up a judgement about what a student needs.

General skills

Written communication: The counsellor writes case notes, risk assessments and reports that teachers, principals and child protection workers act on, so the record has to be accurate and clear to people who were not in the room.
Empathy and interpersonal care: Students bring grief, family breakdown and bullying to a small office, and the counsellor's steady, unhurried manner is often what lets a reluctant teenager keep talking.
Problem solving: A timetable clash, a refusal to attend class and a home situation can all sit behind one student's decline, and the counsellor works out which piece to address first with the time available.
Stakeholder management: A teacher, a parent and a year adviser often want different plans for the same student, so the counsellor explains the wellbeing plan plainly and keeps all of them working in the same direction.

Is the job growing?

About 4,100 people work as school counsellors in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 23.4% over the decade to 2035. That's very strong growth. Few roles in Australia are expanding this fast, and it points to solid demand for years to come.

Employment, 2015–2024, projected to 2035

Employment (workers), Modelled trend anchored to a real Jobs and Skills Australia employment figure, interim years are indicative, not a real yearly series, Estimate
Period	Employment (workers)	Change
2015	3,400	-
2016	3,500	+100
2017	3,500	+0
2018	3,600	+100
2019	3,700	+100
2020	3,800	+100
2021	3,900	+100
2022	3,900	+0
2023	4,000	+100
2024	4,100	+100
2027projected	4,400	+300
2029projected	4,600	+200
2031projected	4,800	+200
2033projected	5,000	+200
2035projected	5,300	+300

Employment rose by 700 between 2015 and 2024; the dashed line shows the official projection to 2035.

How do you become a school counsellor?

Here's the path most school counsellors take, step by step.

1
Start with a degree in teaching, counselling or psychology
Most people enter through a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Counselling or a psychology degree, and the one you choose shapes the postgraduate study you need later. Check the requirements for the state and school system you want to work in before you enrol, because they differ.
2
Add a postgraduate qualification in counselling or psychology
The most common qualification in this workforce is at Postgraduate level, held by 42% of school counsellors, and it is usually a master's in counselling, psychology or educational psychology. This is the study that lets you assess and work with students rather than refer them on.
3
Meet the registration requirements where you work
New South Wales public schools require school counsellors to be registered psychologists through AHPRA, while other states and sectors often accept teacher registration plus a counselling qualification. Requirements vary by state, so confirm them early rather than at the end of your degree.
4
Build school experience
Practicum placements, teacher aide work or a student wellbeing role give you the classroom and child safety context that counselling courses do not fully cover, and schools look for it when hiring.
5
Keep supervision and professional development going
Counsellors usually keep a supervisor outside the school, and membership of a professional body such as the Australian Counselling Association or PACFA supports ongoing registration and training.

Ready to apply as a school counsellor?

Whether you're working toward becoming a school counsellor or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.

Resume templateExample bullet points grounded in this role's real tasks.View & download →Cover letter templateA structured letter with role-specific example content.View & download →Interview questionsWhat people are actually asked, and why.View & download →

What jobs can a school counsellor move to?

Moving into Secondary School Teacher typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $8,700 a year more on average.

School Counsellor

$112,000

Secondary School Teacher

$120,700+$8,700

Psychologist

$114,600+$2,600

Social Worker

$112,900+$900

Educational Psychologist

$99,800−$12,200

Middle School Teacher

$126,000+$14,000

Head of Faculty

$119,600+$7,600

Special Education Teacher

$112,300+$300

Secondary School TeacherRecorded move
$120,700+$8,700
PsychologistRecorded move
$114,600+$2,600
Social WorkerRecorded move
$112,900+$900
Educational PsychologistRecorded move
$99,800−$12,200

Recorded in tax dataSuggested from skill overlap

Thick lines are moves people were recorded making in Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility (income tax records, 2011-12 to 2020-21). Thin lines are moves we suggest from skill overlap and entry requirements.

Move to	Typical pay change	Overlap	Retraining
Secondary School Teacher School counsellors with teaching registration can return to the classroom, using pastoral expertise to support secondary students.Known move	+$8,700	29%	requalify
Psychologist School counsellors bring student wellbeing and assessment skills, but moving to psychologist requires full psychology registration.Known move	+$2,600	16%	requalify
Social Worker School counsellors' casework and welfare skills transfer, though social work requires a recognised social work degree.Known move	+$900	26%	requalify
Educational Psychologist School counsellors bring learning and wellbeing knowledge, but educational psychology requires specialist psychology qualifications and registration.Known move	−$12,200	53%	requalify
Curriculum Coordinator School counsellors understand curriculum and student needs, but curriculum coordination requires teaching registration and leadership experience.Known move	−$35,000	18%	requalify

Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.

Who works as a school counsellor?

The typical school counsellor is 41 years old; 80% are women, 53% work full-time, and full-timers average 41 hours a week.

41
Median age: 80%
Female share: 53%
Full-time: +1h
vs all-jobs avg

What's it like being a school counsellor?

The job has the rhythm of the school year, with intense terms and long breaks, and a caseload that rarely matches the hours available. Much of the work is triage: brief support for many students and longer work for the few who need it most, with teachers and families often seeking a quick fix you cannot give. It suits people who are calm in a crisis, comfortable holding confidences, and patient enough to keep helping a student who is not ready to change yet.

What people like

Seeing a student change over years. A Year 8 student who would not speak in a first session can walk into Year 11 with plans and a group of friends, and working in a school means you are there to see it.
A school-year rhythm. Term dates, holidays and predictable hours make the role easier to combine with family life than many allied health jobs, even though term time itself is busy.
Working with the whole school community. Teachers, year advisers, families and outside services all come through your office, so you see how the school works as a system rather than from one classroom.
Early notice when something is wrong. Counsellors often pick up a shift in attendance, friendships or engagement before it becomes a crisis, which gives you a chance to act while the situation is still manageable.

What people find hard

A caseload set by the school, not by you. Being the only counsellor for a thousand students means deciding who gets four sessions and who gets a check-in at lunchtime, and the waiting list rarely clears.
Crisis work does not keep to the timetable. A disclosure at 3pm can mean phone calls, paperwork and a follow-up plan well after the final bell, and the next day's appointments still stand.
Confidentiality has limits. You hear about things happening at home that you cannot change, and your job is to help the student cope and, where the law requires it, report what you have been told.
Admin squeezes the counselling. Notes, risk assessments, referrals and reporting obligations take time that would otherwise go to students, and they cannot be skipped.

Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.

Which industries employ school counsellors?

Education and Training employs the largest share of school counsellors, followed by Health Care and Social Assistance.

Top employing industries

1Education and Training
2Health Care and Social Assistance

Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.

Highest qualification held
Postgraduate		42.1%
Bachelor degree		33.7%
Diploma / Advanced Diploma		9.8%
Year 12 or below		8.2%
Certificate III/IV		5%

Will AI replace school counsellors?

2out of 10

Low exposure. Unlikely. AI will change some of the work around this job, not the job itself.

AI and automation reach only a small part of this job, because most of it happens in a room with a student and depends on reading a situation accurately. Student information systems like Compass and Sentral already manage timetabling, attendance and parts of the record keeping, and wellbeing surveys can flag who might need support, but none of that changes what happens in a session. Judging risk, working with a family in distress and knowing when to escalate are the parts that keep the role human.

How a typical week splits

15%

AI already does a lot of this

of a typical working week

Case notes and record keeping
15% of the week
Templates and voice-to-text tools can speed up session notes and wellbeing records, which is welcome in a week where admin competes with appointments.

25%

AI helps, you still do it

of a typical working week

Wellbeing programs, referrals and meetings with families
25% of the week
Scheduling, referral forms and program materials can be partly automated, but the meeting where a parent disagrees with the school's plan cannot.

60%

Stays with people

of a typical working week

One-on-one counselling sessions with students
40% of the week
A session with a student who has stopped attending class depends on tone, silence and trust, which no tool provides.
Risk checks and mandatory reporting decisions
20% of the week
Deciding whether a disclosure about life at home meets the threshold for a report is a judgement call that carries legal weight.

How we work this out

We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.

Common questions about becoming a school counsellor

Straight answers to the questions people ask most.

How much do school counsellors earn?

School counsellors earn a median of $112,000 per year before tax, based on full-time workers. Pay is set by the school sector and the state agreement rather than negotiated school by school, so the biggest differences come from whether registration as a psychologist is required and whether you hold a leadership role. Treat the figure as a guide rather than a promise of what a particular school will pay.

How do you become a school counsellor?

Most school counsellors start with a teaching, counselling or psychology degree, then complete a postgraduate qualification in counselling, psychology or educational psychology. From there you need to meet the registration rules for your state or school system, and build experience with children and young people through placements or support roles. Requirements differ across states, so check yours before choosing a course.

Are school counsellors in demand?

School counsellors are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 23.4% over the decade to 2035. The work is funded largely through school budgets, and about 53% of school counsellors work full time, so part-time and shared roles are common. If you are looking for work, that means watching individual school and sector advertisements as well as the overall figures.

Will AI replace school counsellors?

No, and the exposure here is low because most of the work happens in conversation. Student information systems such as Compass and Sentral already handle attendance records and appointment scheduling, and wellbeing surveys can flag a year group that is struggling, but a screening tool cannot tell you why a Year 10 student has stopped eating lunch with her friends. Working that out, and deciding whether to ring her parents that afternoon, is still the counsellor's job.

Do you need to be a psychologist to work as a school counsellor?

It depends on the state or territory and the school system. In New South Wales public schools, school counsellors must be registered psychologists, while other states and sectors often accept a counselling qualification alongside teaching experience. If you are planning your study, check the rules for the state where you intend to work before you commit.

What can a school counsellor move into?

Registered psychologists can move into clinical or private practice, and median pay in that role is $2,600 more. Educational psychology fits the assessment side of the work, but it needs specialist psychology registration, and median pay there is $12,200 less. Social work draws on the same casework and welfare skills, and median pay in that role is $900 more.

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How much do school counsellors earn?

What does a school counsellor do day to day?

What skills do school counsellors need?

Specialist skills

Software and tools

General skills

Specialist skills

Software and tools

General skills

Is the job growing?

How do you become a school counsellor?

Ready to apply as a school counsellor?

What jobs can a school counsellor move to?

Who works as a school counsellor?

What's it like being a school counsellor?

What people like

What people find hard

Which industries employ school counsellors?

Top employing industries

Will AI replace school counsellors?

How a typical week splits

Common questions about becoming a school counsellor

Related roles

Career advice