Unlocking the Allied Health (AH) Graduate Pipeline
Andrew Davison, Tanya Hammond, Jaye Matheson
Abstract
Background:
The AH Workforce Graduate Pipeline Project aimed to improve the AH graduate pipeline into NSW Health. Drivers of the program included; NSW Health Workforce Plan 2022-2032 and AH Workforce Macro-Trends Report.
Method:
The project was completed over a 12-week period, and included research, design, stakeholder
engagement, consolidation, and opportunity identification. Stakeholder engagement sessions
were conducted with approximately 140 individuals through 1:1 interviews and focus groups,
including AH students, new graduates, AH Directors, professional leads, HETI, TAFE, Universities, private practitioners, educators, State partners, Indigenous Allied Health Australia, and Ministry of Health (MoH) workforce team.
Results:
Our research identified key themes for exploration with stakeholders and informed the
articulation of the AH Professional Career Journey, Student Journey, and Student Experience
providing valuable insights into unlocking the AH graduate pipeline. These themes and depictions identified critical enablers of the pipeline, with pivotal factors, a positive preemployment and employment experience.
The report’s findings will support the identification of workforce initiatives that will improve the
NSW Health graduate pipeline. Examples include:
• An opportunity to clearly articulate and communicate a shared understanding of the “AH Profession”, the occupations it encompasses, and career pathways within AH and beyond.
• Illustrating the AH Graduate EVP and specifically a positive, safe and inclusive pre-employment and employment experience.
• Determine the capacity of the AH workforce to support students.
• Process modernisation.
Further, our labour market analysis identified high-demand occupations, presenting an opportunity for targeted approaches to these roles.
This research provides a significant opportunity to support the AH workforce pipeline across Australia, meeting future and service delivery and workforce needs.
Biography
Jaye Matheson- Chief Insights and Transformation Expert
Jaye has 20 years’ experience working as a practitioner, consultant and facilitator with
organisations across public and private sectors, from Australia, Americas, Europe and Asia in
the areas of Strategic Human Resources, HR Transformation, Strategic Workforce Planning,
Workforce Strategy and People Analytics. Prior to joining Tailored HR Solutions, Jaye was a
Director with PwC both in Australia and the United States. Jaye ‘s main areas of experience
and expertise include strategic workforce planning, workforce strategy, HR transformation,
people analytics, facilitation training and capability development. Jaye has a Bachelor of Adult
Education (HR / IR) and is a certified Senior Professional in HR (SPHR) with HRCI.
Andrew Davison – NSW Health, Chief Allied Health Officer
Andrew has 25 years of experience working in healthcare, as an allied health clinician, in health
service management and in executive leadership roles. He has worked in inpatient, outpatient,
community and primary care settings in metropolitan, rural and remote NSW, and in the UK. He
also has experience working in the not-for-profit sector and the private pharmaceutical and
insurance industries. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition and Dietetics), a
Master of Business Administration with Distinction and a Graduate Diploma of Health
Management. Andrew is passionate about growing the value-based healthcare through:
multidisciplinary teams, research and data analytics, strengthening allied health clinical and
professional governance, and advancing allied health clinical practice to improve patient
outcomes and their experience of receiving care and treatment.