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A vision to aspire to…
More than 100 speech pathologists, from all around the
country, were ably led through a range of activities by Project
Manager and Lead Consultant, Gretchen Young.
Each workshop activity focused on seeking feedback on the draft
ideas for the future of the speech pathology profession in Australia
that have been gathered through the project so far.
The workshop began by considering six snapshots of future
possibilities: Working together to embrace big data; Diversifying
the workforce; Changing funding landscapes and service delivery
models; The growth of precision medicine; Virtual learning,
communication and social robotics and The universal right to
communication access. The snapshots provided a powerful tool
for exploring and testing the draft ideas for the future vision and
firming up our shared aspirations.
Participants were then invited to consider the draft vision from
the perspectives of others—clients, communities, funders,
policy makers, other professionals, and, an early career speech
pathologist in 2030. I don’t know about others, but this activity
certainly gave me goose bumps and brought the future to life.
Imagine, some of our new graduate speech pathologists of 2030
are just six or seven years old today and will bring a whole new
set of skills and experiences to our profession.
The workshop concluded with a reminder that the future is
actually about the present and begins with acting today. We
wrapped things up by answering the question:
“What will you start doing now that will enable your vision for
the future of 2030 to be realised?”
I urge each of you to not only answer this question, but also to act
on your answer.
The final stage of the project will culminate in Speech Pathology
week with the launch of the report; Speech Pathology 2030 –
making futures happen.
Keep an eye out for how you can be involved in the launch and
in making futures happen for the speech pathology profession in
Australia, now and into the future.
The A vision to aspire to workshop at the SPA National Conference was the final consultation activity
for the Speech Pathology 2030 project. The brief was for an inspirational workshop and it certainly
didn’t disappoint.
“What will you
start doing
now that will
enable your
vision for
the future of
2030 to be
realised?”
Speech Pathology 2030
Gretchen Young from Young Futures led the Speech
Pathology 2030 presentation at National Coference.
June 2016 Speak Out 35
One of the workshop groups with table host Gail Mulcair (back right).