KEYWORDS Counsellor preparation and education; effective counselling; counsellor selection

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effectiveness of school counsellors in South Western Nigeria with a view to finding out the extent to which demographic variables, counsellor personality characteristics and attitude to work could be relied upon to predict counsellor effectiveness. Four personality inventories and a Work Attitude Questionnaire were administered on fifty school counsellors while counsellor effectiveness ratings were obtained from 2500 counsellees. Results from stepwise multiple regression statistical analysis indicated that a combination of all the independent variables examined in the study had the potency to predict 58.8 percent of the variance of counsellor effectiveness. However, it was observed that the regression weights of most of the independent variables except extraversion and work attitudes appear too small to suggest that they be relied upon to predict counsellor effectiveness.