Abstract:
this study was carried out to identify the counselling needs of polytechnic students using takoradi polytechnic in the western region of ghana as a case study. it aimed at finding out their prevalent counselling needs, sources of support available to students and whether they desire services provided by the counselling department of the institution, taking into considerations variables such as; age, gender, academic level, programme of study and marital status. descriptive research design was used for the study, cluster, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed in selecting two hundred students for the research. questionnaires were distributed and one hundred and sixty were collected after two weeks. frequencies, percentages, cronbach`s alpha, factor analysis and chi-square were use in analysing the data. the results revealed that although students encountered a myriad of problems and also desired consultations with professional counsellors to solve their problems, majority of them did not patronize the services provided by the counselling centre, but rather relied on friends when in need. the study recommends among others that counselling at takoradi polytechnic should be formalised and carried out alongside the curriculum as an audited course.
