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ANZSCO 2524Skill level 1Health and care

Occupational therapist

Help people of all ages participate in everyday activities after injury, illness or disability.

Registration: AHPRA registration as an occupational therapist

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Salary

Cited figures from Job Outlook and QILT. ExamExplained does not publish predictive earnings or projections.

FigureAUDSource
Full-time weekly earnings$1700Job Outlook (2025-06-01)
Graduate starting salary$68,000QILT (2025-03-01)

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What a occupational therapist actually does

Occupational therapists run a mix of clinic appointments, home visits and report-writing time. A community-based paediatric OT might see two to three children in clinic in the morning (working on fine-motor, sensory or play skills) then drive to a school for a teacher consult and a classroom observation. NDIS-funded adult OTs spend a large slice of the week on home assessments, looking at how a participant transfers out of bed, gets to the bathroom, and uses kitchen appliances, then writing functional capacity assessments and assistive-technology reports. Hospital OTs work across rehabilitation, mental-health, hand therapy and pre-discharge home assessments. Most OTs work around 38 hours a week, mostly daytime hours, with significant unpaid admin time on top for NDIS-funded reports. The work blends clinical reasoning with practical problem-solving (rails, ramps, grab bars, splints) and lots of writing.

Typical tasks

  • Assess functional needs at home, school and work.
  • Prescribe assistive technology and recommend modifications.
  • Support participants in NDIS-funded programmes.

Skills you'll use

  • Functional task analysis and activity grading
  • Home and workplace environmental assessment
  • Prescribing assistive technology (wheelchairs, splints, sensory tools)
  • Cognitive screening and rehabilitation
  • Sensory-integration approaches for paediatric clients
  • Report writing for NDIS, Workcover and discharge planning
  • Collaboration with families, schools, employers and clinicians
  • Goal setting in shared-decision conversations

How to become one

  1. 1Finish Year 12 with English (Biology or PE Studies is helpful but rarely compulsory)
  2. 2Complete a 4-year accredited Bachelor of Occupational Therapy or a 2-year graduate-entry master
  3. 3Pass the placement hours required by the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia (around 1,000 hours)
  4. 4Apply for AHPRA registration as an occupational therapist in your final semester
  5. 5Apply for a graduate OT role in hospital, community, NDIS or paediatric services
  6. 6Consider specialty postgraduate training or microcredentials in hand therapy, sensory integration, driving assessment or mental-health
  7. 7Decide whether to stay employed, contract through NDIS, or open a private practice

Where you can work

  • Public hospital rehabilitation and acute wards
  • NDIS-funded community practices
  • Paediatric clinics and early-intervention services
  • Schools and disability inclusion teams
  • Aged-care and home-care services
  • Mental-health inpatient and community teams
  • WorkCover and rehabilitation providers
  • Hand-therapy clinics

Career progression

Typical stages and salary bands. Salary figures are sourced from Job Outlook, QILT or industry bodies; brackets are 25th-75th percentile not absolute floors or ceilings.

  1. Graduate OT
    0-2 years
    Typical roles: Graduate occupational therapist, Hospital rotational OT
    Salary band: $68,000 - $78,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  2. Senior OT
    3-7 years
    Typical roles: Senior OT, NDIS lead practitioner, Hand therapist
    Salary band: $85,000 - $105,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  3. Specialist or team leader
    7+ years
    Typical roles: Team leader, Specialist hand therapist, Private-practice principal
    Salary band: $105,000 - $140,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)

Is this for you?

You might love this if

  • You think practically about how people live their daily lives
  • You enjoy creative problem-solving with simple equipment
  • You can build trust with vulnerable clients and their families
  • You're comfortable working in someone's home and respecting their space
  • You can handle the slower pace of behavioural and functional change

This might not suit you if

  • You want fast-paced acute clinical work over long-term function
  • You hate writing reports - NDIS work in particular is report-heavy
  • You don't cope with frustration when funding is denied
  • You want a job entirely free of bureaucracy

Three ways in

Uni, TAFE and trade routes for occupational therapist. Not every career has all three; we only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.

University

Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.

TAFE / VET

Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.

No direct TAFE pathway to this career.

Apprenticeship trade

Earn while you learn through an Australian Apprenticeship.

Not an apprenticeship trade.

Sources

ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Job Outlook directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.