Practice Essentials
Step into your role with clarity and confidence. OTA’s Practice Essentials are self-directed, online learning modules designed to help you meet the demands of your practice area – with confidence and competence – at the foundational level. Whether you’re new to the profession, transitioning into a new area, or returning to work, these modules offer the structure, guidance and essential knowledge to support consistent, high-quality occupational therapy practice.
OT Practice Essentials: Your Pathway to Confident, Capable Practice
Real-world Learning, backed by the profession
Practice Essentials translates what's expected of OTs into clear, practical learning you can apply in your day-to-day work. Developed with leading educators, researchers and clinicians, every module reflects current capability frameworks and the standards expected by clients, employers and the profession.
Explore the programs
Each program includes a suite of interactive, evidence-based modules tailored to the demands of a specific practice area. Choose the full suite to ensure comprehensive coverage, or select individual modules to target specific learning needs.
OTA members who purchase a full suite unlock an exclusive interactive session to help embed learning into everyday practice.
Choose the program that fits your needs
Practice Essentials: Mental Health
Mental Health Practice Essentials provides a comprehensive e-learning pathway for occupational therapists, covering all key foundational capabilities an OT should seek to achieve when focusing their scope of practice on mental health.
Practice Essentials: Pain
Build your knowledge of pain mechanisms and develop practical strategies to support clients experiencing persistent pain.
Practice Essentials: Working with older people
Support older Australians with evidence-based approaches to care, enabling safety, independence and quality of life across a variety of aged care settings.
Practice Essentials: Working with children
Explore child development, family-centred practice, and intervention approaches to support children, young people and their families effectively.
Why choose Practice Essentials?
Build confidence with structured, evidence-informed learning aligned to national capability frameworks.
Learn at your own pace with fully online, self-directed modules you can revisit again.
Target your learning by choosing individual modules or completing a full program.
Support your team – employers can feel confident that staff who complete Practice Essentials understand what’s expected of them.
Backed by OTA and developed in collaboration with experienced occupational therapists and educators.
Start learning today
Practice Essentials gives you more than just knowledge – it gives you the clarity, capability and confidence to know your practice meets the mark.