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• develop and implement a suite of complementary strategies
to attract a diverse range of people to the profession,
possible strategies include:
• increasing the availability of school based
traineeships for allied health assistants and
Aboriginal health workers;
• articulated pathways from a range of vocational
education programs into speech pathology pre-
entry training;
• revising the Competency Based Occupational
Standards to accommodate restricted scope
of practice for new entrants to the profession
and those returning after a long career break to
enable inclusion of people who have a specific
disability, those who are not fluent in English but
are interested to work with people from a specific
language background, and those returning to the
profession who only wish to work with specific
client groups.
• maintain awareness of Australia’s changing demographics
and policy directions and proactively plan to ensure there is
adequate capacity and capability across the total workforce,
and appropriate distribution to respond effectively;
• train pre-entry students and professionals across all career
stages in advocacy and policy skills to ensure they are well-
equipped to contribute to developing and promoting the
role of the profession and its contribution to the community;
• advocate for appropriate remuneration for our knowledge,
experience, and the demands of our role, including having
equitable pay across domains of practice, service sectors
and jurisdictions;
• support each other through mentoring, strengthening our
culture of collaboration and sharing expertise; and
• develop systems to record comprehensive, accurate,
current data on the profession to inform policy and
workforce strategies.
Making it happen
Leading the way...
Indigenous Allied Health Australia
(IAHA) is playing an important role in
building the workforce of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander allied
health professionals. The Workforce
Development Officer does a lot of
work in schools. She explained that
although young people know a lot
about the role of doctors, nurses and
Aboriginal health workers, they know
very little about allied health. The
work of IAHA helps to open up their
career choices and encourages young
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
into the allied health workforce. This
work is particularly important in rural
and remote areas where supports for
career planning are limited.
IAHA are working closely with
education departments and training
organisations in the Northern
Territory and Western Australia with
the goal of establishing school-
based traineeships for allied health
assistants. Through the traineeships
students will meet different allied
health professionals and start
identifying mentors to support their
future careers. Into the future this work
will provide an important foundation
for building formal links between
certificate programs and pre-entry
allied health training programs.
IAHA supports Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander allied health students
and professionals through processes
such as connecting Indigenous
students with each other, arranging
mentor–mentee relationships, and
offering opportunities for students
to share their experiences. Through
this work, it is becoming clear
that it is important to have both a
professional and a cultural mentor to
promote “two-way learning” between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students and professionals.
IAHA explained that building a future
workforce of speech pathologists
from Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander backgrounds requires
investment not only in Indigenous
individuals and communities but also
in academics and clinical educators,
service managers and non-Indigenous
professional colleagues. People
working in these systems must build
their knowledge and understanding
of Indigenous culture and practice
and embrace the opportunities this
presents for the profession.
Indigenous Allied Health Australia
As we step into the future, the speech pathology profession will: