There's certainly a lot of PE teachers in Guidance!

It really does need to be brought out into the open though. Course choice, understanding aptitude, relating abilities to future professions ... even filling in basic UCAS forms etc There is a very limited skills set here.

One theory I heard is that teachers with "proper" academic degrees are not encouraged to go into guidance because there is NO shortage of PE teachers... whilst the number of other subject teachers is very limited.

Guidance has become a fast track into "management" these days... so why are non-PE teachers disadvantaged ?

In the end it is the quality of advice the pupil receives that really suffers... not to mention the further churning out of inadequate, over assertive, trainee managers we have to suffer at a later date. Is this the future of "Leadership" in Scotland?

We need a better mix. In my present school Guidance teachers are 85% PE teachers - that is just ridiculous!        (There goes anothwer spanner!)

Your sister doen´t represent the "swathes of wasters" that are becoming more and more noticeable in this area I´m sure. It´s a real shame that some really great individuals will take the hump at some of the generalisations that have been made here - I know 2 really amazing PE teachers that do a great job.

So, I think you´ve missed the point - entirely - there are far too many PE teachers doing guidance. Aren´t there? AND that they typcally don´t have the necessary skills to deal with kids on many levels - especially the brighter ones. e.g. Career advice? It´s a real problem that is not being confronted in schools - certainly not by the government or the GTC.

A question raised was whether this was because teachers with substantial degrees that required a level of academic, shall we say, acuity... were not being encouraged into the Guidance "suite" .. an area more and more devoted to juvenile, pathetic pranking. PSE or SocEd or whatever that waste of time is called is just a joke to these people or "swathes of dedicated staff" as some people refer to them -  that´s when they turn up, full of their self importance. 

As our youth says, many just relate to the popular kids - many just do not have the ability to relate to kids in a manner that best suits their real needs. Very common in our school (and many many others) is the tactic of befriending the more challenging kids, taking the easy way by eg taking their side and not concerning themselves with what has concerned the classroom teacher in the first place. It is undermining and weakening the whole system. It is not addressing the real need of kids who are becioming more and more aware of how to bend the system to suit themselves by exploiting "un-gifted" staff lacking insight and looking for the easiest way possible to do a job and just take the money at the end of the day.The problem is that many pupils come back to haunt the classroom professional repeatedly as they are not being dealt with appropriately- This is far too common. Many PE Guidance teachers perhaps do not realise the importance of actually doing an academic subject themselves (entry requirements are somewhat different)- how on Earth should only one group of teachers be thought able to this job with the many demands and nuances it now requires?

Isn´t the child supposed to be at the centre these days and shouldn´t they be treated with more respect than this?

The very real problem is of course,  that many of them just won´t realise that they aren´t doing the job properly... and that no amount of training (be it in-service, 2 day course, events) is going to improve the situation. 

We need a greater mix.  A much greater mix. We all have something to contribute here NOT just PE teachers.