About Us
OT Futures aims to promote state-wide collaborative leadership among universities, professional bodies, major employers to progress occupational therapy student placements in Queensland.
OT Futures aims:
- To strategically guide the student placement capacity to meet consumer needs for the future occupational therapy workforce.
- To advocate for student placement needs of occupational therapy students across all Queensland University programs.
- To provide a collaborative and innovative approach to the growth, development, and sustainability of quality student placements for member universities within Queensland.
- To drive the integration of evidence informed student placement learning and contribute to research on practice education in occupational therapy.
- To liaise and partner with key industry student placement providers, informing them of best practice evidence to guide placement quality.
- To facilitate collaboration on key student placement matters and initiatives and a culture of workforce engagement in the practice education.
Join us
Current members of OT Futures are from the following organisations:
- Australian Catholic University
- Bond University
- Central Queensland University
- Griffith University
- James Cook University
- Southern Cross University
- The University of Queensland
- University of the Sunshine Coast
- University of Southern Queensland
Industry Representatives
- Queensland Health (Allied Health Professions Office-QLD)
- Occupational Therapy Australia
- Department of Education and Training- QLD
New industry partners are welcome!
Who we Help
OT Futures is an Australian industry collaborative made-up of University Occupational Therapy education programs, health service providers and industry stakeholders. We strive to integrate professional leadership among universities, professional bodies, major employers and individual occupational therapists to progress quality and sustainability of the occupational therapy profession.
Are you a Service Provider or Occupational Therapy Student who would like to find out more?
Future-proof your occupational therapy workforce
Have you been wondering how to access future occupational therapy graduates? Contact Us now and we will connect you with your local OT Futures representative. This will enable you to support your workplace to develop sustainable occupational therapy placements for students who will soon be entering the workforce.
You're headed to placement
OT Futures has strong networks within the industry who are looking to connect with you. Here you can find out about your placement assessment, practice standards and other useful resources.
Our Story
OT Futures has evolved from the original OTPEC-Q team to provide you a refreshed and easy to navigate resource. Members of OT Futures are highly experienced and skilled Occupational Therapists from across Queensland who came together to promote access to emerging students and maintain and high quality and evidence-based foundation of Occupational Therapy. Since 2017, there has been an increasing demand for student placements and with this came an increasing need for qualified individuals to know how to become a placement supervisor, how to support a student and where to refer students for additional information and support.
The team here at OT Futures is a rotating committee of academics and practice specialists in the field. This diverse background of the team increases understanding of industry demand and promotes a vast range of skills and knowledge made accessible to the field. Our vision has emerged from understanding industry demand and continues to evolve to enable access to emerging students and providing a professional network as a crucial resource.
Vision statement
OT Futures partners with Occupational Therapy practices to help create engaging placements that mutually benefit the provider, our communities as well as students - our workforce of the future.
Our Values
- A commitment to open and authentic State-wide collaboration and engagement
- Recognition of a commonality of purpose, passion and commitment to professional practice placements
- A desire to drive engagement of the OT profession in practice education
- A commitment to sustainable growth in practice education opportunities
- A desire to develop the best possible OT profession by ensuring quality practice education that contributes to sustaining and growing occupational therapy
- Support of practice education research and knowledge translation to promote high quality practice education experiences and outcomes
- A commitment to growing practice education opportunities in a diversity of occupational therapy practice areas.
Case Studies
The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is occurring across QLD soon. Here, Alison Copley from Develop Occupational Therapy in South Australia talks about her experiences with the introduction of the NDIS, and the impacts this has had on OT student placements.
Melanie Roberts is an OT Lecturer at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. Here, she provides an overview of the planning and preparing process involved in Griffith University's OT collaborative placements.
Learn about a variety of flexible and innovative placement models to suit your business.
Contact Us
How can you be involved in providing practice education experiences for students?
Need to know more about practice education and student placements?
Are you interested in joining the OT Futures collaborative?
Interested in training, hosting, offering a placement or something else?
Please contact us: info@otfutures.com