Student Pathway Advisor (Contract)

Position Summary

Support Staff Full-time Appendix D Contract Position (Immediately to September 18, 2026)

The Student Pathway Advisor (SPA) is responsible for providing a range of wrap around supports including post-secondary pathway advising, college supports to students within the School College Work Initiative (SCWI), Adult Dual Credit (ADC), School within a College (SWAC) program and Ontario Youth Apprenticeship (OYAP) level 1 programming and beyond. The successful candidate collaborates with school board dual credit, SWAC, OYAP, ADC teachers and college faculty, ensuring students have all the opportunities to be successful in their courses, and to assist with their post-secondary pathway transitions.

The SPA takes a holistic approach to providing student success advising through group, one-on-one meetings, activities and workshops. This includes a relational process of helping students in a variety of formats.

The incumbent focuses on helping students to identify and understand difficulties, formulate goals, and co-create a plan of action to assist in their post-secondary transitions. The SPA is responsible for providing academic advising; identifying barriers to student success and responding to a wide variety of inquiries from students.

The incumbent will also represent the college on the local Ontario Education Championship Teams (OECT), supporting Youth in Care (Youth in Extended Society Care) transitioning to post-secondary and for those attending Conestoga. The incumbent will create and implement activities to promote transitions to post-secondary programming and connections for those that have identified attending Conestoga.

The incumbent will participate on a college team to support future programming for Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Military Transition Engagement & Partnerships (MTEP) Group.

Successful candidates will be required to conduct work within Ontario and must be available to work on campus as required. It is anticipated that this position will meet the needs of the department through a hybrid work arrangement with two to three days on-site at the Doon campus located at 299 Doon Valley Drive in Kitchener, and two to three days remote. Hours of work are Monday to Friday, either 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Responsibilities

• Explains core advising principles to students such as privacy and confidentiality boundaries and autonomy
• Advises students using strength and skills-based approaches
• Facilitates clarification between students and faculty when there are unclear expectations, and communication issues
• Assesses class group dynamics or other academic difficulties
• Provides guidance to school board and dual credit teachers regarding college support through our Accessibility Department
• Acts as a resource and advocate to the college and dual credit community in identifying and understanding the needs of students, the interaction with academic policy, and the support required for student persistence/retention
• Enables students to develop skills that support academic development and success (e.g., time management, organizational and problem-solving skills)
• Develops and delivers workshops and orientations for School within a College, ADC and OYAP level 1 students across multiple campuses
• Through one-on-one and group meetings with students, finds and explores post-secondary programs of interest for each student which will help their post-secondary pathway planning and promotes positive transitions
• Facilitates discussions with individual students about financing post-secondary education including the completion of an Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) application, bursaries, scholarships, and awards
• Plans and coordinates accurate registration and orientation of students in dual credit courses, which includes monitoring and reviewing information received from school boards, sending complete information to the registrar’s office, adjusting for withdrawals, updating data in relevant locations, and liaising with the Dual Credit/SCWI Administrative Assistant on booking student transportation and parking
• Monitors dual credit programming/courses to ensure funding aligns with student enrollment and projected enrollment
• Tracks student success and retention in all dual credit programming and provides mark summaries and Student Achievement Reports to external partners
• Remains current with relevant Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour Immigration, Training and Skills Development legislation, and policies as it relates to the School College Work Initiative
• Completes wrap around reporting for interim and final reports due to the Ministry

Qualifications

• Three-year diploma or degree in Social Services, Social Work, Education, Mental Health or a related field is required
• Minimum of three years of experience working with young adults in an advising or coaching capacity, preferably within an educational setting is required
• Strong verbal and written communication skills including active listening and group facilitation
• Ability to quickly establish a trusting and supportive relationship with a diverse group of students
• Strong knowledge of the full range of post-secondary education and training programs (apprenticeship, college, university) admissions processes, selection processes, OCAS, OSAP, bursaries, and scholarship level 1 pathways
• Ability to support students’ online research and OCAS/OUAC and OSAP applications
• Empathy, patience, tact and desire to assist students from varying backgrounds with their academic and personal concerns
• Excellent interpersonal, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence skills to develop and maintain collaborative partnerships with internal and external community stakeholders
• Access to reliable transportation and ability to travel to multiple campus locations

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