The University Counselling (UC) team, together with Form Teachers and Diploma Programme (DP) Mentors, provide guidance and organise activities for our students as part of the Education and Career Guidance Programme. The UC team emphasises three key themes and offers three levels of programming and support for students along their university search and application journey.
The UC curriculum is intentionally designed to develop the three key elements of the UC programme – Knowledge, Skills and Mindset – and ensure students are fully prepared to make informed decisions about their educational future. It includes 26 cohort-level workshops facilitated directly by the UC Team, annual 1:1 meetings with students, and a range of specialised small-group sessions that are differentiated for particular countries or subjects of interest. These are supplemented by a broad array of other resources, including university visits, fairs, parent seminars, and an online university guidance system.
Three themes
Knowledge – building awareness and understanding of career options, higher education pathways and individual universities to ensure students can make fully informed decisions about their futures
Skills – empowering students by developing a range of attributes such as self-awareness, independence, ownership, decision-making, and effective written and verbal communication
Mindset – promoting the belief that students have the ability to positively impact their future through active engagement, short and long-term planning, and a combination of aspirational, balanced and realistic thinking
Three levels of support
Personal Guidance
- Advice on IBDP subject combination choices
- Support with university choices and applications
- Tailored 1:1 drop-in sessions on academic roadmaps
- Personal statement review and feedback sessions
- Psychometric tests and career fit discussions
- Customised mock interviews
Group / Interest-based
- University talks and taster lectures
- Workshop for prospective medicine, dentistry and veterinary applicants
- Overview of the US college admissions process
- External talks and information days
Cohort and Schoolwide
- Comprehensive university guidance curriculum throughout the IGCSE and IB Programme
- Summer Internship Programme
- SISHK’s annual Higher Education Fair
- Alumni sharing and mentoring sessions
- Comparison of university systems around the world
- CV/resume workshop
Example of a Secondary 4 student workshop:
University Fit Exploration
Living and learning environments can vary dramatically from one university to another, even within the same country or city, and every student has their own individual preferences and priorities for their future study. The relative importance of factors such as academic flexibility, expectations for social and community involvement, or access to urban resources are different for each student. The UC Team will guide S4 students through an interactive exploration of their emerging preferences for higher education across a range of academic, social and geographical factors, along with a discussion of how these preferences may impact their search process.
Example of a DP1 student workshop:
PREPARING A CV/RESUME FOR INTERNSHIPS AND UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS
The UC Team’s CV and resume writing workshop is designed to help students prepare for the school’s Internship Programme. We will offer strategies for choosing which accomplishments to feature and how students can make their top attributes stand out. We will also highlight some common mistakes students often make when preparing these documents and how these can be avoided.
All DP1 students will need to submit a CV or resume in early spring in order to confirm their internship placement. The resume will be further refined towards their preparation of the university applications after the summer of 2023.
Example of a DP2 student workshop:
ELEVATOR PITCHES
Elevator pitches are short self-summaries designed to make a positive first impression. These are useful for students when they introduce themselves to university representatives and often as an answer to the most common first question of an admissions interview: “Tell me about yourself.” Students will have an opportunity to draft their elevator pitches, practise them and get feedback from peers, mentors and the university counsellors.
SISHK Higher Education Fair
This annual event brings together representatives from a large number of universities on a single afternoon each September, allowing SISHK students to efficiently learn about the variety of higher education opportunities available around the world. The chance to interact one-on-one with university staff and alumni assures that students can obtain answers to the questions that matter most to them, while also promoting conversational and networking skills.
Our 2019 fair featured 80 schools from 13 countries. During the past three years, we have restructured this event into a combination of collaborative online fairs and smaller in-person sessions to ensure that students retain direct access to representatives from university representatives around the world.
Full range of university-related resources and support
Subject talks: Medicine Professor Dr. Albert Li from the Chinese University of Hong Kong speaking to SISHK students about studying medicine in September 2022.
Career Networking: SISHK students attended the Legal Forum organised by the Hong Kong Law Society at the University of Hong Kong Moot Court in September 2022.
Internship Program: DP students participate in a 2-week internship organised by SISHK. Here are DP2 students sharing their reflections with the school.
In addition to the events featured above, the UC Team also offers the following resources and services to the school community:
- Parent seminars and forums
- Comprehensive application support and guidance for DP students
- Continued support and guidance for alumni