Career counselling for students in Ontario: what exists, what it costs

What your teenager already has, free

The school guidance office

Every Ontario secondary school has guidance counsellors, and they are the right first call for the things that have deadlines: course selection and prerequisites, co-op and OYAP, university and college applications, scholarships. They are stretched — one counsellor can carry several hundred students — so a specific question (“what does she need in Grade 11 to keep engineering open?”) gets a far better answer than a general one (“what should she do?”).

Employment Ontario youth services

Ontario funds free employment services for young people through local agencies — job-readiness training, paid placements, help with a first résumé and interview. Programs and names change, but the local Employment Ontario office is the door, and services for youth generally cover ages 15 to 29.

What a paid counsellor or coach adds — when they do

The free options are good at the parts with deadlines. What they usually can't do is the slow part: sit with one teenager for an hour, several times, and get them in front of people doing real work. A good private service adds:

• Time. Conversations long enough to get past “I dunno.”
• A stranger. Many teenagers will say things to a coach they would never say to a parent. That's not a failure of the parent; it's adolescence.
• A network. The phone calls that turn “maybe a trade” into a morning with an electrician.
• Structure. A plan with steps and dates, and someone checking back.
• Sometimes, formal assessment. A registered professional can administer proper aptitude or psychometric tools when a route needs them. Most teenagers don't need this; some do.

Counselling versus coaching: the distinction that matters

“Career counselling” and “career coaching” get used interchangeably, and they shouldn't be. Counselling, in the clinical sense, is regulated work done by registered professionals — psychologists, psychotherapists, certified career counsellors — and can include formal assessment. Coaching is practical guidance and is not regulated, which means anyone can call themselves a career coach. Neither is better; they do different jobs. The tell is whether the person says which one they are without being asked.

Questions to ask before paying anyone

1. “Are you a registered counsellor, or a coach?” Either answer is fine. Evasion isn't.
2. “What will my teenager have actually done by the end?” Not received. Done. Conversations had, places visited, steps taken.
3. “How do you involve parents, and what do you keep private from us?” A good answer has both halves.
4. “What happens to the data?” Anyone working with minors should be able to answer this in a sentence, and should have it written down.
5. “What's the total, and what happens if it isn't working?” Package, per session, guarantee, refund — in writing.
6. “Can you get my teenager in front of someone doing the work?” If the answer is a report, keep looking.
7. “Would you tell me if this isn't right for my kid?” Watch the face.

What Launch League is, and isn't

Launch League runs a paid, one-to-one career-coaching service for teenagers in Grades 7 to 12 in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. It is coaching, not counselling: practical exploration, conversations with people who do the work, a job shadow where an employer has capacity, and a written 30/60/90-day plan in the teenager's own words. Parents are involved from the first call and see summaries and the plan; the teenager's own questionnaire answers stay between them and the coach, with one safety exception that is explained up front. Nick is not a registered counsellor, psychologist or therapist and says so on the page. If that is what your teenager needs, we will tell you.

Outside Chatham-Kent, the free pieces still apply to everyone: Future Finder, the parent's guide, and the after-high-school guide. They are most of what the coaching does, written down.