Occupational therapist
Help people of all ages participate in everyday activities after injury, illness or disability.
Registration: AHPRA registration as an occupational therapist
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Occupational Therapists (2524) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $1526 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
| Graduate starting salary | $75,300 | QILT (2026-08-31) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Occupational Therapist (252411), the closest official match for occupational therapist, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 33,100
- Future demand
- Very strong
- Work full-time
- 63%
- Average full-time hours
- 40 a week
- Women
- 89%
- Median age
- 34
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 28.1% |
| VIC | 28.9% |
| QLD | 18.9% |
| WA | 12.7% |
| SA | 7.8% |
| TAS | 0.8% |
| ACT | 1.3% |
| NT | 1.4% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 26.5% |
| Bachelor degree | 71% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 0.8% |
| Certificate I-IV | 0.2% |
| Year 12 | 0.6% |
| Below Year 12 | 0.1% |
What an 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
- 1Finish Year 12 with English (Biology or PE Studies is helpful but rarely compulsory)
- 2Complete a 4-year accredited Bachelor of Occupational Therapy or a 2-year graduate-entry master
- 3Pass the placement hours required by the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia (around 1,000 hours)
- 4Apply for AHPRA registration as an occupational therapist in your final semester
- 5Apply for a graduate OT role in hospital, community, NDIS or paediatric services
- 6Consider specialty postgraduate training or microcredentials in hand therapy, sensory integration, driving assessment or mental-health
- 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 roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- Graduate OT0-2 yearsTypical roles: Graduate occupational therapist, Hospital rotational OT
- Senior OT3-7 yearsTypical roles: Senior OT, NDIS lead practitioner, Hand therapist
- Specialist or team leader7+ yearsTypical roles: Team leader, Specialist hand therapist, Private-practice principal
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
Ways in
Uni and TAFE routes for occupational therapist. We only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
Bachelor of Occupational Therapy
Australian Catholic University - NSW
Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy)
The University of Sydney - NSW
Bachelor of Occupational Therapy
Western Sydney University - NSW
Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours)
Monash University - VIC
Bachelor of Science (Occupational Therapy) (Honours)
Curtin University - WA
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
No direct TAFE pathway to this career.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.