Your career pathway
We will create a consistent, quality-checked and internationally leading career framework putting physiotherapy at the forefront of allied health in Australia and abroad.
Physiotherapy Competence Frameworks
- APA Physiotherapy Competence Framework (PDF)
- APA National Advanced Practice Physiotherapy Competence Framework (PDF)
While physiotherapists are seen as healthcare leaders in Australia, there are always opportunities to improve our industry to benefit patients, physiotherapists and the healthcare sector. Our members and many health stakeholders have shared our desire to create a completely consistent, quality-checked and credentialed and industry-recognised training/education postgraduate programs of physiotherapy in Australia.
Currently, clinical areas of physiotherapy have different training, education, credentialing and career opportunities required for intermediate practitioners through to advanced and specialist physiotherapists. Future advances in scope of practice, such as prescribing, may require credentialing and many areas of practice in sectors may require an assessment to be recognised.
That’s why we are embarking on a major review and reform of accreditation for competency, assessment, mentoring, training/education, credentialing of physiotherapy in partnership with key stakeholders.
A career pathway framework is necessary to support the evolving and diverse professional development needs of physiotherapists with clinical competence statements at entry level, titling/advanced and specialist level in a robust and transparent way.
It will enable physiotherapists to choose and map their own career and know the opportunities and pathways that lie ahead of them—no matter what their career journey looks like. This may be a vertical journey towards titling and specialisation within a chosen clinical area, or a less typical, horizontal journey that explores subjects in greater breadth or depth than usual.
We will be partnering with some of the best physiotherapist educators from universities, expert clinicians and members to collaborate to deliver quality modular professional development.
With support from our members, we’ve made some great headway with aligning standards, but we have a long way to go. We are only at the beginning of this journey, which is estimated to take two years.