Youth employability in Nigeria remains a major educational, economic and counselling concern, especially in contexts where formal employment opportunities are limited and informal-sector participation remains dominant. In Rivers State, many young people move from school into uncertain labour-market conditions without adequate preparation for self-employment, apprenticeship, vocational enterprise or informal livelihood pathways. This study rethinks career counselling by examining how entrepreneurial competencies can be integrated into counselling frameworks to enhance youth employability in the informal sector. The study adopted an integrated mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey evidence with qualitative thematic synthesis of relevant literature, policy documents and labour-market reports. Quantitative data were collected from 600 respondents, comprising 300 secondary school students, 150 guidance counsellors and 150 unemployed youths across the three senatorial districts of Rivers State. The Career Counselling and Employability Skills Survey was used for quantitative data collection, while the qualitative strand involved thematic synthesis of scholarship on career counselling, entrepreneurial competencies, informal-sector work and youth employability. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and independent samples t test. Findings showed that career counselling in Rivers State secondary schools remains largely formal-employment oriented, with 82% of students indicating that counselling sessions emphasised white-collar careers, while 74% reported that counselling lacked entrepreneurial content. Only 32% of counsellors reported training in entrepreneurship, and only 21.3% of students indicated that their schools hosted entrepreneurship activities. Students’ awareness of informal-sector opportunities was low, with a composite mean of 2.09, below the decision mean of 2.50. The t-test results showed significant differences in perceptions of counselling effectiveness between students and counsellors, t(448) = 3.54, p < .001, and awareness of informal sector opportunities between students and unemployed youths, t(448) = 4.12, p < .001. However, no significant difference was found in the rating of entrepreneurial competencies between counsellors and youths, t(298) = 1.47, p = .142. The study concludes that career counselling in Rivers State requires urgent repositioning through entrepreneurship-oriented counselling, vocational exposure, mentorship, labour-market awareness and follow-up support. It proposes an Entrepreneurship Oriented Career Counselling Model as a contextually responsive framework for promoting self-reliance, career adaptability and livelihood construction among Nigerian youth.