CBSE Career Guidance Portal in 2026: What It Offers and How Schools Use It

If you are a counsellor in a CBSE school, you have probably been told to "use the CBSE career guidance portal" without anyone explaining which one. CBSE has built two official tools in five years, plus a hub and spoke network for counsellors, and since January 2026 every affiliated school needs a career counsellor for every 500 students in Classes 9 to 12. This guide explains what each tool is, what it offers, and how to run a school career guidance program around it.

The stakes rose this year. In January 2026, CBSE made career counsellors compulsory under its affiliation bye-laws. In February 2026, following a Supreme Court order on student mental health, it told schools to provide regular, structured career counselling for students and their parents, delivered by a qualified counsellor. Everything below is as of November 2026, and we flag the points we could not confirm.

What is the CBSE career guidance portal?

There are two official tools, launched four years apart. Search results mix them up, so it helps to separate them.

• The CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling portal launched on August 4, 2021. CBSE built it with UNICEF and UNICEF's technical partner, iDreamCareer, at cbsecareerguidance.com. It was made for students in Classes 9 to 12 and was free for them.
• The CBSE Career Guidance Dashboard launched on August 7, 2025 for the 2025-26 session, at cbsecareerguidance.in. CBSE's circular of the same day pointed every affiliated school to this address.

We could not confirm whether the 2021 portal still runs as a separate site. If your school was onboarded in 2021 and is unsure which login to use, start from the address in the 2025 circular.

What does the 2021 portal contain?

The 2021 launch is the one CBSE described in detail. According to its press note and UNICEF India, the portal covered more than 560 careers, 25,000 colleges and vocational institutes offering over 3 lakh courses, 1,200 scholarships and 1,150 entrance exams. Career information was available in English, Hindi and eight other languages.

Students signed up with their details and got a personal career dashboard, which used AI and machine learning to tailor the journey, with a gamified design that works on a phone, tablet or laptop. The portal included career options for students with disabilities and was designed to be gender inclusive. For schools, two teachers or counsellors per school were trained and given a counsellor dashboard. CBSE also said a 90-hour self-paced course for teachers and counsellors was being developed with UNICEF support; we could not confirm its current status.

What is the CBSE Career Guidance Dashboard?

The dashboard is the newer tool. CBSE launched it on August 7, 2025 at its office in Dwarka, New Delhi, before more than 500 principals, counsellors and wellness teachers. The Chairperson, Rahul Singh, linked it to the reforms of the National Education Policy 2020.

CBSE has said less about what is inside. Its circular describes "a rich repository of tools and resources" for career exploration, and its press release says the dashboard is for students, teachers and school leaders. CBSE has not published a list of features or content figures for it, so treat any third-party list as unofficial until you see it in your own login.

How does the CBSE counselling hub and spoke model work?

The dashboard launched alongside a second initiative that matters more to counsellors day to day: the Counselling Hub and Spoke School Model. It is mainly about wellbeing and mental health support, but it is also where school counsellors meet, train and report. The key rules from CBSE's circular of August 7, 2025:

• A hub is an established CBSE school with a full-time counsellor and a counselling room. Each hub counsellor mentors about 8 to 10 spoke schools.
• Spoke schools must have an appointed counsellor or wellness teacher and should ideally be within 10 to 15 km of the hub.
• Hub and spoke schools meet in the first week of each month for 45 minutes to an hour during school hours: 7 meetings in person and 3 online in a year.
• Monthly themes run from July to January for students and teachers and from July to December for parents.
• Spoke schools report each activity in at most 250 words with 2 or 3 photos through a Google Form. The hub compiles a report of up to 1,000 words and 4 photos for CBSE, due by the 5th of each month.

CBSE also published a list of hub and spoke schools for the 2025-26 session. If you are not sure which network your school belongs to, ask your principal for that list before the next monthly meeting.

What does CBSE require from schools in 2026?

The tools are optional aids. The staffing rules are not. Two 2026 circulars set the floor for career guidance programs in CBSE schools:

• January 19, 2026: CBSE amended its affiliation bye-laws so that every school appoints one career counsellor for every 500 students in Classes 9 to 12, and one counselling and wellness teacher for every 500 students. Career counsellors need a graduate or postgraduate degree in a field such as humanities, science, social sciences, management, education or technology.
• February 2026: following the Supreme Court's guidelines on student mental health, CBSE told schools to train all staff at least twice a year, keep anonymous records, prepare an annual report on wellness work, run parent sessions, and provide regular, structured career counselling for students and parents by a qualified counsellor.

CBSE also keeps running in-person programs for counsellors. In April 2025, more than 450 principals and counsellors from 26 cities attended a CUET orientation in Delhi, and on May 29, 2026 CBSE held an awareness program on entrance exams and career paths for principals and counsellors in Jammu. Watch the CBSE circulars page for the next one in your region.

How should a school counsellor use the portal week to week?

Here is a practical way to build the official tools into a career guidance program. This is our suggestion, not a CBSE requirement.

1. Get every Class 9 to 12 student registered on the dashboard in the first month of the session, and keep a list of who has not logged in.
2. Use career information from the portal in class sessions: one career cluster a week, with students noting two careers to research further.
3. Pair the portal with an interest assessment so that students explore careers that match them, not only the ones they already know.
4. Before Class 10 stream choices, meet each student, ideally with a parent, and record the options discussed and the agreed next steps.
5. For Classes 11 and 12, track entrance exams, scholarships and college deadlines per student, not just as a class notice.
6. Bring your activity notes to the monthly hub meeting and file spoke reports on time.
7. Keep counts of sessions, parent meetings and referrals through the year so the annual report is not a scramble in March.

Where does the portal stop, and what do counsellors need alongside it?

The portal and dashboard are good libraries. They help a student discover careers, courses and exams. What they are not designed to be is your working record: the notes from each one-to-one session, the plan you agreed with a family, the tasks a student owes you, and the evidence for CBSE's reports. With one counsellor for up to 500 students, those records are where time goes.

That is the gap a counselor workspace fills. Pave gives school counsellors and independent counsellors who support CBSE schools one place for each student: a psychometric career assessment, college shortlisting from verified data across 13+ countries, application and deadline tracking, tasks and essay management. The Meeting Recorder turns a counselling session into notes on the student's record, so you do not have to type them up afterwards. Use the official dashboard for exploration and Pave for the plan and the paperwork.

Frequently asked questions

What is the official CBSE career guidance portal?

CBSE has run two official tools. The CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling portal, built with UNICEF and its technical partner iDreamCareer, launched on August 4, 2021 at cbsecareerguidance.com for students in Classes 9 to 12. The CBSE Career Guidance Dashboard launched on August 7, 2025 at cbsecareerguidance.in, and that is the address CBSE gave schools in its circular for the 2025-26 session.

Is the CBSE career guidance portal free?

Yes. CBSE and UNICEF described the 2021 portal as free for students. CBSE did not announce any charge for the 2025 Career Guidance Dashboard either.

Who can use the CBSE Career Guidance Dashboard?

CBSE's August 2025 press release says the dashboard is meant for students, teachers and school leaders. When the 2021 portal launched, students in Classes 9 to 12 signed up with their details, and two teachers or counsellors per school were trained and given a counsellor dashboard.

Does using the portal meet the CBSE career counsellor rule?

No. CBSE's circular of January 19, 2026 requires a career counsellor for every 500 students in Classes 9 to 12. The portal and dashboard are tools for that counsellor and for students; they do not replace the appointment.

How often do CBSE hub and spoke schools meet?

Under CBSE's model for 2025-26, hub and spoke schools meet in the first week of each month for 45 minutes to an hour during school hours: 7 meetings in person and 3 online in a year. Spoke schools report each activity through a Google Form, and the hub sends a compiled report each month.

Written by

Sahil Maheshwari

Lead Engineer, Pave

Sahil Maheshwari is the Lead Engineer at Pave, where he builds the platform counselors use to manage student profiles, college lists, essays and deadlines. He leads Pave's work on AI agents and integrations, including the connector that lets counselors work with their Pave students from AI assistants.