Look at any international conference program and Australians will feature in the invited list.

One of the reasons for that is the high quality of our education, which continues for life as we grow and develop professionally.

The APA is advantageously positioned in the healthcare system, with an enormous suite of professional development courses and a specialist physiotherapist college, the Australian College of Physiotherapists, as part of the same association.

This differs from the medical model, where, for example, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association are separate.

For physiotherapists, access to additional learning opportunities creates multiple paths for members to pursue their career objectives.

The delivery of lifelong learning has significantly changed over the past five years.

Fortunately, the APA began online learning back in 2010, which gave us a 10-year head start before COVID-19 arrived.

Our platform of courses, lectures, symposia and case studies is accessed by physiotherapists in over 35 countries, with more than 44,000 registrations.

In the coming year, we will be making a significant financial investment in our professional development courses, including a shift towards more online learning while maintaining the practical skills nurtured in face-to-face workshops.

APA members learn in both formal and informal settings.

Formal learning is delivered in a systematic, intentional way. It is planned and guided and is usually presented in one of our face-to-face courses and programs or through online courses and programs on cpd4physios. It has a structure, clear learning outcomes and definitive clinical goals.

Informal learning, on the other hand, is unstructured and may be unintended. It often takes place outside of a conventional learning setting.

This kind of self-directed and spontaneous learning plays an important role in rounding out members’ education overall.

Reaching out to the international physiotherapy community through education is a significant priority for the APA and a great deal of time and effort has been put into creating global educational products.

The APA intends to expand beyond the cpd4physios platform and to launch targeted premium learning courses in specific regions.

Meanwhile, members often ask for advice about developing their career pathway. There are four simple steps.

First, seek out a mentor to assist you in your career development, preferably a titled physiotherapist. specialist physiotherapists may be available but are often busy mentoring titled members who are registrars in the Specialisation Training Program.

Second, read the APA Competence Framework and self-rate your competencies. This will help you to establish where you are now and what you need to develop. The third step is to begin gathering evidence of your formal and informal learning.

Finally, from mid-2023 you can download the Portfolio for Titling and start populating the portfolio. Work with your mentor to fill gaps in competence via learning or experiential methods.

Our current goal is to credential 1650 specialist physiotherapists and 5000 titled physiotherapists. For 2500 members, the journey has already begun and they have achieved at least one titling or specialisation credential.

We would love to see you join them and are ready to help.