Exercise Physiologist Hub

• The undergraduate degree for an Exercise Physiologist (EP) generally involves 4 years of full-time study at most Australian Universities.
• EPs need to complete 500 hours of clinical placement to complete their degree
• EPs must get Accredited Exercise Physiologist accreditation with ESSA.
• Universities can offer Bachelor and/or Master level exercise physiology degrees.
• In some states of Australia, EPs are required to undertake extra modules of study to work in Occupational Rehab. The WorkCover authority of each state will advise an EP what the extra modules of study are and if that particular state requires them to undertake it. For instance, EPs in NSW are required to undertake the extra modules of study but not in Tasmania, ACT, NT or QLD. 

• Overall, ATAR requirements to study exercise physiology range from 75 – 90 depending on the university.
• A lot of students choose to work as Allied Health Assistants or Disability Support Workers or work in hospitality, tourism, retail, customer service, ride-hailing or food delivery services etc  while doing their degree.
• Studies can be a combination of face to face and/or online. 

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein

An Exercise Physiologist must be accredited with ESSA, Exercise and Sports Science Australia, to practise as an EP in Australia. Exercise Physiology is not a degree that requires AHPRA Accreditation.

You can read more about ESSA on their website. 

As an EP, you can work:

• Full-time
• Part-time
• As a Contractor.

Your role could be:

• Community-based,
• Mobile,
• Office-based,
• FIFO
• Work from home or
• A combination of the above. 

Face-to-face and Telehealth options are widely available in most roles. This offers flexibility to EPs to schedule work around their life, as opposed to the other way around.

As an EP, you can work anywhere in Australia. You are in exceptionally high demand in metro, rural, regional or remote locations Australia-wide.

Exercise Physiologists can work around the world – just make sure to check what the requirements are for the relevant country and if ESSA has an alliance with them – it’ll make your life so much easier.

Check out some of our jobs available for EPs right now.

• Graduates: $65,000 – $75,000 base + super
• 1-2 years’ experience: $75,000 – $85,000 base + super
• 3-5 years’: $85,000 – $100,000 base + super
• 5+ years experience: $100,000 base + super and above. This is when Team Leader or Management level roles start to appear as well.

Keep in mind that the above are general indicators. There are always exceptions to the rule and unique circumstances e.g. location, industry, role depth, employer salary band-widths, work arrangement etc that also determine the wages offered to Exercise Physiologists. If you would like to discuss your salary, feel free to contact us.

“You are the one thing in this world, above all other things, that you must never give up on.” – Lili Reinhart

Our EPs are offered and/or we negotiate a range of benefits for them. Benefits differ between industries, roles and organisations. Employers do their best to customise benefits to suit job-seekers. 

$: Regular Salary Reviews | Performance Bonus | Extra Superannuation Contributions | Salary sacrifice or Salary Packaging arrangements | Corporate Discounts – one of our NFP clients gives their team discounted Medical and Health Insurance.

Tools of Trade: Mobile | Laptop | Tablet  | Speech to Text Software

Admin & Reception Support: Free up time by dictating your reports and let the admin team do the rest

Travel: Pool Car Access | Novated Lease | Per km reimbursement | Go Get Car Access | Set amount per timeframe | Petrol Card (one of our clients gives their team members petrol card access for work and personal use – booya!)

Knowledge & Assessment Suitcase: Subscriptions, both hard-copy and soft-copy | Professional development contribution, comprehensive induction | On-going mentoring and in-services by subject matter experts.

“Learn until your idols become your rivals.” – Anonymous

Extra Leave: One of our clients is a school and they give their staff 7 weeks’ leave. Other clients give their staff reservist leave, doona days, volunteer, pet and birthday leave. 

Parental Leave: One of our clients gives their staff the difference between their wage and the government mandated parental leave subsidy for the full 16 weeks. Pretty amazing.

Social and team building: Paid for by the company. One of our clients paid for their whole team to do axe-throwing and a cooking class – not on the same day….

Health, Wellness & EAP: Pool, yoga  or gym access or contribution | Confidential EAP to assist you when you need a hand.

Career Mapping: Our clients spend a lot of time and money training and supporting you. They would like to see you mutually thrive. 

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” – Zen proverb

These are anecdotal observations based on our conversations with thousands of Exercise Physiologists over time. 

1. KPI: Some of our EPs say that they find the idea of billable targets challenging as it associates their work with a dollar amount. 
2. Case Management vs Clinical: Some roles, especially those in Occupational Rehab involve applying your clinical skills in a case management setting. Some Eps find this challenging as they miss the clinical, hands-on side of things. They say that the CPD helps as do hybrid roles where they can perform both clinical and case management duties. Win, win!

“Success isn’t owned, it’s leased, and rent is due everyday.” – J. J. Watt

The International Exercise Physiology accreditation pathway is open to graduates from an overseas tertiary institution who: 

1. Have at least 4 years full-time equivalent study with a focus on clinical exercise physiology.
2. Have undertaken at least 500 hours of professional practice comparable to ESSA’s practicum requirements including: 140 hours of exercise science practicum and 360 hours of exercise physiology practicum.

Applicants for exercise physiology accreditation must meet the accreditation requirements for both exercise science and exercise physiology. All applicants must gain exercise science accreditation (AES) via the non-accredited course pathway before applying for the international pathway. Check out ESSA for more info. 

Medijobs Australia highly recommends commencing your ESSA registration process early in your migration journey so that you have plenty of time to get through your ESSA Accreditation requirements.

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Calling all Kiwis: Australia and New Zealand are signatories to the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Act. This means that the qualifications of Exercise Physiologists from NZ are recognised in Australia. They qualify for accreditation once they successfully apply to register with ESSA.

“I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.” – Madeleine Albright.