A new education pathway for postgraduate psychology students: challenges and opportunities

In Australia, the limited number of psychology postgraduate places, coupled with a high demand for mental health and psychological services underscores the need for new, innovative models of psychology training. The objectives of this paper are to describe the 5 + 1 internship pathway; why it was developed; the pedagogy employed and to stimulate debate regarding training models for Australia’s future psychology workforce. Information outlined in this paper is drawn from the public domain and our collective experiences as fifth year coordinators and/or stakeholders in developing Australia’s psychology workforce. The content of the fifth year program is applied and practical. Content is generalist as opposed to specialist, while pedagogical approaches employed are predominately experiential. The fifth year program lends itself to integration with other training models. Perceptions that the training is inferior to specialist programs need to be challenged. Online offerings are a priority to ensure training is available for students in rural and remote areas or seeking flexible modes of delivery.