The difference between mental health certificate B and certificate C

Let’s get straight to the point: the core difference between domestic mainstream primary and secondary school mental health education teacher certificates B and C is that their level positioning is completely different - C certificate is a universal entry-level qualification for all teachers and staff, while B certificate is an entry-level qualification for full-time and part-time psychological positions. The former has low application thresholds and narrow usage rights, while the latter has high assessment requirements and a wide scope of application. A few areas will reverse the order of grades, but more than 90% of the national implementation standards are that B certificates are higher than C certificates.

I have helped sort out application materials for psychology teacher qualifications in the school's moral education office for three years, and I have seen many teachers confuse the uses of the two certificates and waste time preparing for the exam. Sister Zhang, the head teacher who taught mathematics in the third grade of junior high school last year, applied for a C certificate in order to be evaluated as an outstanding head teacher in order to obtain psychology-related qualifications. All she needed was a teacher qualification certificate and teaching on the job for one year. The district education bureau organized a 32-hour online class. After completing the class, she took a test paper full of multiple-choice questions and basic short-answer questions. She got the certificate in just over a week, and there were almost no obstacles. But if you apply for a B certificate, the threshold is higher first: you must hold a C certificate for 2 years, or you must have a college degree or above in psychology or education related majors. The training is also mainly offline practical, which adds up to 60 class hours. The final assessment requires not only a theory test, but also a complete individual psychological counseling case and a 15-minute simulated consultation on-site test. Last year, 8 teachers in our school signed up, but only 5 passed in the end. Two of them were dismissed because they made mistakes in responding to crisis scenarios during the simulated consultation.

Many people didn't understand it before taking the exam, thinking that the two certificates are just different in difficulty and have no difference in use. This is not true. The authority is not even the same. Teachers holding a C certificate can only do general psychological work: for example, holding a class meeting on psychological themes, helping to collect information for psychological screening of all students, and providing initial comfort when students are in a mood. If students are tired of studying, prone to self-harm, parent-child conflicts and other problems that require in-depth intervention, the C certificate is not qualified to provide individual case counseling. At most, they can help refer to a full-time and part-time psychological teacher holding a B certificate. The B certificate is the hard entry threshold for school psychology teachers. With the B certificate, you can not only independently receive cases and take specialized mental health classes, but also take the lead in designing psychological activities at the grade and school levels. When evaluating the relevant professional titles of psychology teachers, the B certificate is required, and the C certificate does not count at all as job qualifications.

However, it should be mentioned here that there is currently no unified national assessment standard for these two certificates. The value of these certificates varies greatly in different regions. There are now two different voices in the industry on this matter. For example, the certificates in places like Guangdong and Zhejiang have unified propositions, unified training, and unified issuance of certificates across the province. The assessment standards are strict and are recognized across the province and across regions, and even by some off-campus psychological institutions. ； However, there are also many districts and counties that organize their own training and examinations. In some places, the training time for B certificate is less than half that of Guangdong C certificate, which is very confusing and will not be recognized across districts. One school of thought believes that unified national assessment standards must be introduced as soon as possible, otherwise the authority of the certificate will not be improved, and it will be easy for unqualified teachers to mislead students. ； Another school of thought believes that many underdeveloped areas are not even equipped with full-time psychological teachers. It is better to lower the threshold first and allow more class teachers to obtain C certificates to popularize them than to have no one care about students' psychological problems. There is no need to apply one-size-fits-all.

I met a teacher from a private school before. He took the B certificate issued by the local government in his hometown. He moved to a school in Shenzhen and wanted to be a psychology teacher. He was not recognized at all. In the end, he took the B certificate from Guangdong Province again before joining the job. He said that the B certificate he took before did not even have a case assessment. He just passed the test after memorizing the questions for three days. It was really difficult.

In fact, to put it bluntly, these two certificates are like the C1 and B2 of a driver's license. If you are just a class teacher and need to understand some basic psychological knowledge, and usually hold class meetings for students to deal with minor emotions, a C certificate is completely sufficient.； If you want to be a full-time psychological teacher and rely on your psychological counseling skills to make a living, then the B certificate is a must-have entry point. Of course, if you want to go further in the direction of clinical psychological counseling and psychotherapy, these two certificates are only the foundation of the foundation. There are still a lot of things to learn and test later, so I won’t go into details. If you are really not sure how your local grades are ranked, you can call the Moral Education Department of the Education Bureau directly and ask. It is much more reliable than searching online for half a day.