Speak Out February 2018

Early Career Reference Group Association news

The Early Carer Reference Group (ECRG) was established in September 2016. The Group meets once a month to discuss issues concerning new graduates and early career speech pathologists. The primary role of this group is to identify the unique needs and concerns that early career speech pathologists may face while seeking to establish and build a professional identity and career and then support the Association to develop resources and supports for members. It is made up of a number of speech pathologists who have recently graduated and two National Office staff. Tiyana Jones was the first Chair of this Group and Sophie Clark then took over this role in July, 2017 Current members of this group include Petra Avramovic, Eileen Boyle, Sophie Clark, Rebecca Gillogly, Rebecca Keely, Natalie Lloyd and Rachel Nolan. Past members were Jaclyn Georgiou, Anne Huang, Tiyana Jones, Alexandra Rehn and Chloe Yarwood. We would personally like to thank all members, for their commitment and enthusiasm in being part of this Group. Their work has driven many key resources for students and speech pathologist in the early stages of their career. We look forward to working with all members of this Group in 2018!

Join the Early Career Facebook member community www.facebook.com/groups/SPAEarlyCareer

entitlements. We split up into smaller groups to tackle each key issue – and over the last 18 months, these key issues gave rise to a number of projects that were worked on by the individuals in the group. While working in this group only via teleconference was not without its challenges, the Group’s hard work has paid off − there are some fantastic resources available to early career speech pathologists thanks to the ECRG and their dedication. Make sure you check them out − see the attached list of resources developed in 2017. This is only the beginning. The ECRG is working with SPA to continue to develop resources, increase our social media presence, further develop the series of informative podcasts and facilitate deeper discussions around the issues facing early career speech pathologists. Make your voice heard, seek out answers and share your ideas. The best resource for early career speech pathologists is, early career speech pathologists. Let’s use our collective experience to support one another, build each other up and make ourselves the best speech pathologists we can be. Thank you for joining the Speech Pathology profession, we look forward to working with you. Planned projects for 2018 • Analyse the survey around how members access CPD supports in the workplace and develop resources to support members where gaps exist. • Develop a guide for prospective employers about the benefits of hiring recently graduated speech pathologists. • Gather data about specific issues early career speech pathologists face in early years of employment. • Gather information about working as a contractor vs an employee.

Nichola Harris Senior Advisor, Professional Practice

Meredith Prain Professional Support Advisor

A word from the Chair

Embarking into any new career can be exciting, daunting and uncertain. Speech pathology can be an incredibly rewarding profession – but it is not without its challenges, particularly when starting out. When I finished university – I was stressed about finding a (good) job, keeping up with my professional development and managing the sheer exhaustion of working full-time. There didn’t appear to be much out there to support speech pathologists early in their career, and if there was – it wasn’t easy for me to find. It turns out I wasn’t alone. That’s why I was so excited when, in August 2016, the Early Career Reference Group (ECRG) was formed. A group of clinicians who had recently graduated or were in their first year of work gathered from all over Australia for our first teleconference, eager to get started on identifying and addressing issues currently faced by other speech pathologists in the first years of their career. From a range of clinical settings – we bemoaned the frustrations we had encountered so far, and excitedly dreamt up solutions. Over the next few meetings, we attempted to get a handle on these solutions by grouping them into 4 key issues: Professional development, rural and remote, availability of positions and

Sophie Clark Chair, Early Career Reference Group

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February 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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