Get ready to apply.

The entry criteria

Six requirements, and the evidence each needs.

Everyone enters as a HICS Accredited Counsellor, on the same six criteria, and everyone sits the same written board examination. If your training predates the recognised-programme framework, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) establishes your eligibility to sit it.

Each criterion is set out below with the evidence it needs.

1. 1

   A qualification

   A minimum NQF 7 qualification in psychology, social work or a counselling-related field, from a recognised South African higher education institution.

   Evidence: A certified copy of your degree certificate and your academic transcript, showing the discipline and the NQF level. Both are shown on your directory listing. HICS may confirm a qualification with the awarding institution where a document is unclear.

2. 2

   Recognised counselling training

   Completion of a counselling training programme recognised by HICS against its published Entry Training Outcomes Standard.

   • A programme HICS has recognised.
   • orA programme HICS has not yet recognised, submitted with your evidence of it.
   • orRecognition of Prior Learning (RPL), for training that predates the recognised-programme framework, which establishes eligibility to sit the examination.

   Evidence: Evidence of successful completion. If your programme has not yet been recognised by HICS, also a formal outline of its curriculum, learning outcomes and duration, and the CVs of those who taught it.

   How training is recognised

   Recognition is granted to a programme and a curriculum version, so it is normally your provider that applies, not you. You are recorded against the version you actually completed, and are, on admission, recorded as holding what it covered. You never pay HICS a fee to have your training counted: the provider pays an application fee and an annual renewal fee. If your programme has not yet been recognised, or your training goes through RPL, there is no separate fee for that assessment.

   Your training decides your fields of practice. A field of practice records what your training covered. It follows from your recognised programme’s curriculum, or from further training you apply with and evidence, and it is verified before it is recorded.

   Humanitas Training was the first provider recognised, and its counselling programme carries the recognition mark; the approved training directory, once published, will list every recognised programme.

   A training route the Membership Rules describe as unusual is not turned away at the door: it raises a question of judgement, and is determined by the Standards and Admissions Committee at its next scheduled meeting, against the published criteria and against nothing else.

3. 3

   200 supervised practical hours

   Accumulated during or after the recognised training programme. Hours accumulated before that training began do not count.

   Evidence: Sign-off by an Accredited Supervisor, a supervisor on the Approved Supervisor Directory, or an external supervisor approved by HICS. An external supervisor needs a minimum of five years in practice and must adhere to the Code.

4. 4

   Five personal counselling sessions

   With the same counsellor or mental health professional. Separate from, and additional to, the 200 supervised hours. Being counselled is part of being competent to counsel.

   Evidence: A signed declaration from the counsellor or mental health professional who provided the sessions, confirming attendance only: the dates and the number of sessions, and nothing about their content.

5. 5

   A fit-to-practise declaration

   No undisclosed finding of professional misconduct by any body, and no undisclosed criminal conviction relevant to fitness to practise.

   Evidence: The declaration itself. The operative word is undisclosed: a past finding does not automatically bar an applicant, but concealing one is a matter of conduct in its own right.

6. 6

   A pass in the written board examination

   Set and marked by HICS against its own published standards, and sat by every applicant, including every graduate of a recognised programme. The first five requirements establish eligibility; this one establishes competence, because completing a course is not the same as being able to do the work.

   Evidence: Nothing to submit. HICS sets and marks the examination and holds the result, so this is the one criterion verified from its own records rather than from anything you provide.

7. Admitted as a HICS Accredited Counsellor

   The flagship designation, and the only way into membership. The fields of practice you hold, and your entry qualification, are recorded at admission and shown on your directory listing.

Also assessed at admission

Fields of practice

HICS records which fields an applicant’s training actually covered, and they are shown in the directory listing. Most members may hold more than one. A field can be added later by evidencing the training for it.

The entry qualification

Verified at admission and displayed as its own record: the discipline and the NQF level. HICS does not designate on academic level, so this is shown rather than folded into the designation.