SP 2030 Report

8. DIVERSE AND DYNAMIC WORKFORCE

O ur vision is to create a profession as diverse as backgrounds; males; people with disability; and people from regional, rural and remote communities. Fulfilling this aspiration will expand our perspectives, knowledge and experiences. This will bring to our profession a broader understanding and responsiveness to communication, eating and drinking difficulties across our community. It will also improve our engagement with the community, improve access and increase client choice. To help attract different people to the profession, we will establish a range of pathways into speech pathology training courses. There are opportunities to increase understanding of allied health professions among high school students through school-based allied health assistant traineeships. Beyond high school we will work with training organisations to develop articulated pathways from vocational education programs into pre-entry speech pathology training for Aboriginal health workers, allied health assistants, aged care workers, childcare assistants, and disability workers. We appreciate the opportunities brought to the profession by individuals who seek to return to speech pathology after an extended career break or by those who come to the profession to build on an established career or other life experiences. By actively supporting the integration of these different skills and experiences, we recognise our knowledge base and what we can offer the community will be strengthened. An important precursor to establishing speech pathology as a potential career of choice across people from different backgrounds and among people with a range of interests and skills, will be investing in building greater awareness about what speech pathologists do, how they add value, and the breadth and depth of speech pathology roles. In shaping our future workforce we will ensure opportunities for varied and rewarding career pathways, allowing speech pathologists to contribute to community need while having long and satisfying careers that fulfil a range of aspirations and are appropriately remunerated and supported. We will also value and recognise the contributions made by speech pathologists who move beyond speech pathology roles into other areas of practice, appreciating the perspectives and knowledge they continue to contribute based on their experience in speech pathology practice. It is important our workforce strategies are informed by comprehensive and accurate data about the profession. To achieve this we will establish mechanisms to collect and report on a range of key variables relevant to the speech pathology workforce and associated community need. the community we serve. We will work to increase participation from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; people from diverse cultural and language

In our clients’ words:

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“My son has been so lucky. As a teenage boy with a language

disorder, having a male speechie has meant he’s had a real mentor and role model who understands him. This has helped him enormously.” “I think there needs to be more awareness training and workshops for professionals so they can understand our culture and kinship systems. Things like why it’s so hard to get to appointments sometimes because of our cultural responsibilities.”

“I didn’t have a clue about what speechies did until I got cancer.”

“Speech pathology will need to change because you will need to factor in other languages and cultures. Australia is becoming more and more multicultural.”

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Speech Pathology 2030 - making futures happen