Psych Hub

The Undergraduate degree for a Psychologist as of June 2022 involves 5 + 1. This involves a combination of study and practicum placements for 4 years, at the end of which you are classified as a Psychology Intern. You then have to apply to AHPRA – the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency – to  get your Provisional Accreditation. AHPRA accreditation is required to practise as a Psychologist in Australia. 

“Fifth year students in the 5+1 pathway, and masters, doctorate and combined degree students in the higher degree pathway are required to hold registration as a provisional psychologist for the duration of their studies. You need to apply for provisional registration after you have enrolled in your postgraduate degree (i.e. enrolled in subjects), and before you start your degree (i.e. attending classes and undertaking placements).” – Psychologyboard.gov.au

The “+1” in 5+ 1 involves supervised work under an AHPRA Board Approved Supervisor for the last year to then become eligible to get registration as a General Psychologist with AHPRA.

“Registration requirements are determined by the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.” – www.psychology.org.au

If you commenced your Psychology studies before June 2022, you are likely enrolled in the 4+ 2 psychology internship program. The guidelines for 4+ 2 Psychology interns are available here.

Overall, ATAR requirements to study psychology range from 75 – 86 depending on the university. A lot of students choose to work as Disability Support Workers or 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. 

Endorsements for specialist areas of psychology are also available. These involve further study and supervised practise.  

We realise that the above information may seem like quite a journey to follow your passion and become a psychologist, but…

“Promise me you’ll always remember — you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh

APS: The APS, Australian Psychological Society, is the peak body for psychologists in Australia. It performs advocacy, delivers professional development services and allows you to engage with the wider psychology community.

As a Psychologist, 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 psychologists to schedule work around their life, as opposed to the other way around.

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

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

Psychology is a universal degree which means you can work anywhere in the world as a psychologist (but make sure to check what the requirements are to practise in each country). 

• Graduates: $65,000 – $75,000 base + super
• 1-2 years’ experience: $75,000 – $85,000 base + super
• 3-5 years’ experience: $85,000 – $100,000 base + super
• 5+ years experience: $100,000 base + super and above. This is when Specialist, 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. specialist psych endorsements, level of registration with AHPRA, i.e. provisional, general or specialist, location, industry, role depth, employer salary band-widths, work arrangement etc that also determine the wages offered to psychologists.

If you would like to discuss your salary, feel free to contact us.

Our Psychologists 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. 

Financial: 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 | GoGet 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 $, Comprehensive induction | On-going mentoring and in-services by subject matter experts. Some of our clients offer their psychologists in-house supervision to acquire their various registrations or endorsements. All else being equal, who do you think secured more job-seekers, an employer offering on-the job supervision or one where you have to secure one and pay for them yourself? 

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. Imagine!

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.

“The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of the world but those who fight and win battles that others do not know anything about.” — Jonathan Harnisch

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

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” ― Leonard Cohen

These are anecdotal observations based on our conversations with thousands of psychologists: 

1. Are we there yet: Some of our Psychologists have indicated that the demands on them to get general or specialist psychologist registration are not only onerous time-wise, but cost-wise as well. Some of our clients have recognised this and try to build supervision into their psych staff’s roles in-house or contribute towards its cost. 
2. KPIs: Some of our psychologists say that they find the idea of billable targets challenging as it associates their work with a dollar amount. 
3. Case Management vs Clinical: Some roles, especially those in Occupational Rehab involve applying your clinical skills in a case management setting. Some psychs find this challenging as they miss the therapy side of being a psychologist. They say that the CPD helps as do hybrid roles where they can perform both counselling and case management duties. Win, win!

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.” – Charles Bukowski

“To work as a psychologist in Australia, you need to apply for and be registered with the Psychology Board of Australia.” – www.psychologyboard.gov.au. 

Here is a link for overseas Psychology applicants.

You also need to be accredited with AHPRA to practise in Australia.

“The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency works in partnership with the National Boards to ensure that Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practise.” www.ahpra.gov.au

Medijobs Australia highly recommends commencing your Psychology Board registration and AHPRA accreditation processes early in your migration journey so that you have plenty of time to get through your accreditation requirements. 

“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage” – Saint Francis de Sales

Calling all Kiwis: Psychologists who have current registration and a current practising certificate that allows you to practise as a psychologist in New Zealand can apply for registration as a psychologist in Australia under the Commonwealth Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act 1997. You can find the details for NZ qualified Psychologists here. 

“God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia.” – Russell Crowe