Massage & Myotherapy Australia has welcomed reforms to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ OSCA (formerly ANZSCO) Occupation Standard Classification for Australia list for Massage Therapists 411613.
Mrs Ann Davey CEO, said that the long overdue reforms to the old ANZSCO listing, now recognise the three distinct Australian massage occupations.
This includes the new Unit Group of 4412 Massage Therapists and Myotherapists, with the three subcategories of 441231 Massage Therapist, 441232 Myotherapist, and 441233 Remedial Massage Therapist.
Mrs Davey said, ‘We welcome these changes, because they represent the significant changes in professionalism, training and competency standards that have occurred over the past 25 years. The three categories encompass all AQF qualifications within the massage sector including Cert IV (Level 3 Category), Diploma, Advanced Diploma and Bachelor Degree (Level 2 Category).'
‘During the year, we have worked extensively with the ABS involving several detailed evidence-based submissions, to ensure OSCA properly reflects the education, skills and competencies of Australia’s contemporary professional, qualified massage sector.’
‘The old classification of massage therapist is now appropriately a lower Level 3 Occupation, whereas the occupations for Remedial Massage Therapist and Myotherapist which require considerably more clinical training and competency for a much wider range of chronic and acute conditions are Level 2 Occupations.
In preparation for the next CENSUS, the ABS review of ANZSCO Classifications provided opportunity for Massage & Myotherapy Australia to correct the inaccurate classifications and descriptions of Australia’s massage labour force.
Mrs Davey said, ‘Our primary concern was to ensure that the one generic classification for massage therapists (Level 2 Occupation of Massage Therapist 411613) was replaced with the three different occupations that fall under the general term of massage therapist.
‘The evidence showed that the baseline skills and tasks described in the existing occupation of Massage Therapist 411611 were akin to relaxation spa-style massage associated with beauty and well-being services, basic massage services provided in many shopping centres, and qualifications and training attained outside of Australia.
Mrs Davey said, ‘The ABS has listened to the professional massage sector and reviewed and acknowledged the strength of the evidence concerning massage labour force to bring about these much needed changes.
‘We thank them for their professionalism and focus on evidenced based decision making.’
‘We hope that the new classifications will be adopted by the department of immigration, various state and federal health departments and those many departments and organisations that administer health and support services.
Additional Note: Massage & Myotherapy Australia has also provided submissions to Job Skills Australia including a submission to the consultations to replace the Australian Skills Classification with a National Skills Taxonomy (NST).
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Key Facts:
The new ANZSCO/OSCA classification of 4412 Massage Therapists and Myotherapists, with the three subcategories of 441231 Massage Therapist, 441232 Myotherapist, and 441233 Remedial Massage Therapist, now recognise the three distinct Australian massage occupations that are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework.
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