Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - English language skills
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English language skills

March 2023

The National Boards’ temporary policy position of accepting specific additional English language tests ended on 21 February 2023 for applicants who need to use the test pathway to meet the English language skills registration standard. This temporary policy was in place in response to COVID-19.

You should refer to the English language skills standard for your profession (see below) about registration requirements and information about accepted tests and test providers is available here.

All 16 professions have a registration standard for English language skills. These standards apply to all applicants for initial registration, regardless of whether they qualified in Australia or overseas.

The standards are:

  • a common standard for 10 professions: Chinese medicine, chiropractic, medical radiation, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology.
  • a standard for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners 
  • a standard for dental practitioners 
  • a standard for medical practitioners 
  • a standard for nursing and midwifery, and 
  • a standard for paramedicine. 

All of the profession specific standards share many elements with the common standard.

Document  PDF  Accessible format  Date of effect
English language skills registration standard  PDF (375KB) Word version (577KB,DOCX) 1 July 2015
English language skills registration standard (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health) PDF
(89.5KB)
Word version 
(96.5KB,DOCX)
1 December 2019
English language skills registration standard (dental)  PDF 
(225KB) 
Word version 
(72.8KB,DOCX) 
1 July 2015 
English language skills registration standard (medical)  PDF 
(216KB) 
Word version 
(72.6KB,DOCX) 
1 July 2015 
English language skills registration standard (2019) (nursing and midwifery) PDF 
(102KB) 
Word version 
(405KB,DOCX)
1 March 2019 
English language skills registration standard (paramedicine) PDF 
(98.5KB)
Word version 
(378KB, DOCX)
17 May 2018

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board introduced a revised standard that took effect on 1 December 2019.

All other professions, except Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice and Paramedicine, introduced revised standards in 2015. The revised standards were developed after a review of the previous standards, which included a public consultation. The consultation report provides a summary of responses, rationale for any changes and sets out the proposed way forward, including areas where further work is planned.

Document  PDF  Accessible format  Document 
Consultation report – all professions except Paramedicine and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice. PDF 
(576KB) 
Word version 
(638 KB,DOCX) 
May 2015 

The revised standards introduced additional pathways for applicants to demonstrate evidence of their English language skills. Diagrams of how these work are included under ‘additional resources’.

Additional resources

Document PDF Accessible format Document date
Letter from Health Ministers’ Meeting approving new standards (2024) *advance copy of the revised standards will be published in Spring 2024
PDF
(166 KB)
  21 June 2024
Letter from Ministerial Council approving the new standards (2019) PDF
(433KB)
  30 June 2019
Letter from Ministerial Council approving the new standards (2015) PDF 
(1.10MB) 
  April 2015
FAQ for all professions (except nurses and midwives) PDF 
(197KB) 
Web page August 2015 
FAQ: Additional information for Chinese medicine practitioners  PDF 
(280KB) 
Web page August 2015 
Pathways diagram for all professions (except nurses and midwives, and paramedicine): Explains the requirements for each pathway  PDF 
(104KB) 
Word version 
(569KB,DOCX) 
July 2015 
Evidence guide for all professions (except nurses and midwives) PDF 
(268KB) 
Word version 
(799KB,DOCX) 
August 2015 
Transitional arrangements policy for pharmacy limited and provisional registration applicants  Word version 
(230KB,DOCX)
1 July - 30 September 2015 
Additional information for paramedicine   Web page 8 August 2018

Information specific to nurses and midwives

To view the English language skills registration standard and supporting documents for nurses and midwives, please visit the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia website.

Exemption from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

The following documents have been made available on this website in compliance with the National Law and also in the interest of transparency. Wherever possible, Ahpra provides web content in accessible formats. However in cases where the documents have been provided by other parties, accessible format files may not be available or be approved for use.

If you have difficulty accessing one of these documents, please contact Ahpra and we will attempt to provide you with an accessible version.

Ahpra notes that wherever possible, third party organisations are asked to provide documents in accessible formats. Ahpra will update documents on this website when accessible versions become available.

 
 
Page reviewed 8/08/2024