Internship FAQ (5+1)

You need to arrange your own internship by finding a suitable work role and supervisor. You can do this by either searching for jobs for provisional psychologists, or using our list of approved supervisors to find and contact supervisors who may be available to provide principal or secondary internship supervision. We recommend using your personal and professional networks to find a suitable work role and/or supervisor.

We do not approve or accredit internship programs or providers, so we don’t have a list of available internships. 

Find more information about arranging internships, suitable work roles, and what you can expect from your supervisor in the Guidelines for the 5+1 internship program.

Yes. Working with your supervisor/s and employer, you develop an internship plan and submit this to Ahpra for approval.

If you are doing the 5+1 pathway, you can provide your internship plan after completing your fifth-year qualification. You don’t need to wait until you have formally graduated, but you need to provide evidence of your successful completion of all components of the degree, e.g. transcript or evidence of conferral.

We approve a variety of work roles for internships. Roles must be psychological in nature and provide a breadth of experience that allows you to develop and demonstrate all eight core competencies for general registration. The work needs to involve psychology-specific tasks of assessment, problem formulation, diagnosis, intervention and prevention.

If your work role lacks breadth of experience, then you and your supervisor must plan to develop and demonstrate your competence in other ways. These might include a second work role or different work placement/s, specific education and training activities, and/or simulated learning activities. To make a confident assessment of an intern’s competence, the supervisor might introduce extra tasks in addition to the minimum Board requirements.

See the 5+1 internship guidelines for more information about suitable work roles, core competencies, and alternative means of developing and demonstrating competence. You can also refer to the national psychology exam curriculum for an overview of the range of skills and knowledge you need acquire by the end of your internship.

You can undertake supervision by video or web conference (e.g. Zoom), provided you and your supervisor (or peers, in the case of group supervision) can clearly see each other’s facial expressions and body language. You may also undertake some supervision by phone and email:

All practising psychologists, including provisional psychologists, must have insurance that meets the requirements set out in our professional indemnity insurance (PII) registration standard. You are encouraged to seek your own advice about insurance to ensure your cover is appropriate for your individual practice and meets the PII standard.

If you work for a public-sector employer, you may not need to take out your own individual PII if your practice as a provisional psychologist is covered by your employer’s insurance and this cover meets the PII standard.

If you wish to enrol in a fifth-year program and your fourth-year qualification is more than 10 years old, contact higher education providers for information about their entry requirements, including whether they have refresher training requirements for aged qualifications. Higher education providers set their own policies for entry requirements in accordance with the Australian Qualifications Framework, set by TEQSA, and the accreditation standards (APAC).

If you think your overseas qualification is equivalent to an Australian accredited five-year sequence of study in psychology, you can lodge an application for provisional registration for overseas-qualified applicants. We will assess your qualifications and let you know whether you are eligible to commence a 5+1 internship program in Australia.

If you completed formal supervised practice or an internship overseas after completing your qualification, we may waive some of your internship requirements.

Detailed information about the overseas application process is available on our website.

Yes, but you must always inform us of any change to your principal place of practice.

If moving interstate means a change of your internship supervisor and/or work role, you will need to submit a revised internship program plan for approval. The supervised practice you have completed before changing states will still be recognised as part of your internship.