Thinking of the students who have been in quarantine for several months and whose emotional and academic needs have increased, the Smart Center's Advisory area at Universidad Panamericana provided the advisors with tools that will help them to effectively support the young people through the training Tools for University Counseling: Basic Principles of Coaching.
Training Advisory
During the August-December 2021 cycle, approximately 18 advisors successfully completed this training, bringing the total number of advisors trained by Panamericana over the past 18 months to 50.
The training was organized by the Mexico City campus and given by two coaches members of our university community: Dr. Alejandro Ordoñez, director of the School of Engineering, and Ms. María Fernanda Haro, head of the Smart Center.
As a preventive measure for the COVID-19 pandemic, the sessions were conducted through Zoom. Each one consisted of a pre-work to lay the foundations of knowledge prior to the face-to-face sessions, virtual meetings with a practical approach and led by experts, which led the advisors to live in a controlled environment and accompanied by a session with coaching tools and post-work application work with those being advised.
Smart Center Advisory in training
The objective of the training was to help advisors to influence students, that is, to take advantage of coaching competencies to integrate them into academic advising, by means of powerful questions and active listening. The sessions covered two of the 11 competencies required by a coach, which aroused the interest of many advisors to learn more about coaching certifications in the medium term.
These competencies will undoubtedly help the dialogue between advisor and student to be more directed and that the student himself suggests the actions to be taken by means of a guide, increasing his commitment to what is agreed upon in each meeting with his advisor; thus helping him to make decisions through a reflective exercise and giving him tools for life.
In addition, advisors who completed the training program in its entirety received a certificate valid for the teacher category and for the SMART Advisor Diploma.
