Rehabilitation Counseling Graduate Students' Preferences for Employment

A national study of rehabilitation counseling graduate students and state—federal rehabilitation counselors investigated whether there were differences between (a) what graduate students preferred to do upon graduation and what they believed vocational rehabilitation counselors did, (b) what graduate students preferred to do upon graduation and what vocational rehabilitation counselors perceived they did, and (c) what students believed vocational rehabilitation counselors did and what counselors perceived they did. Results indicated graduate students preferred to spend more time on counseling and less time on case management than state—federal vocational rehabilitation counselors perceived they did. Graduate students were accurate in their estimates of the amount of time vocational rehabilitation counselors stated they spent on counseling and inaccurate in their estimates of time spent on case management. Implications for recruitment and retention of rehabilitation counseling graduate students are discussed.