Workforce Development

We are working with member organisations and other partners to address population needs for occupational therapy within and across jurisdictions across the world. Occupational therapists are key human resources to address the health and occupational needs of the population worldwide. However, in many geographic areas, the occupational therapy profession remains underdeveloped. In addition, with ageing populations and the increasing prevalence of non-communicable health conditions, the need for occupational therapy services is growing.

WFOT led a multistage development process to develop the Global Strategy for strengthening the occupational therapy workforce. This global framework articulates key strategic development directions that aim to inform and guide the development of national or local context-sensitive situation assessments, priorities, and action plans. The Global Strategy is expected to be used by professional organisations, educators, regulators, researchers, governments, policymakers and non-government organisations, including WFOT. The Global Strategy can be viewed online or the entire document can be downloaded from WFOT Resources.

WFOT has developed a Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce to provide an overarching framework with key strategic directions for the strengthening of the occupational therapy workforce. To introduce and discuss the implementation of the Global Strategy, WFOT will offer a series of free webinars.

The sessions are open to the occupational therapy community, as well as anyone interested in health workforce planning.

Each webinar will provide a brief overview of the topic, as well as examples of strategy implementation in regions across the world.

Session 1: Introductory session – 1 October 2024 14:00 UK time

An introduction to the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce and the importance of collaborative work to contribute to a goal of improving access to occupational therapy for global health and wellbeing.

The recording of the webinar is available here.

Questions and Answers from Session 1 can be found here.

Session 2: Leadership, advocacy and policy - 28 January 2025 12:00 UK time

A focus upon issues related to leadership, advocacy and policy for strengthening the occupational therapy workforce and improving access to the services of occupational therapists.

The recording of the webinar is available here.

Questions and Answers from Session 2 can be found here.

Session 3: Workforce data and research – 30th April 2025 at 12:00 CET

Highlights of the vital need for occupational therapy workforce data and research for addressing the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce.

The recording of the webinar will be available here soon.

Session 4: Workforce management and retention – June 2025 – date TBA

Exploration of the impact of workforce factors and management to identify strategies to recruit, retain and optimally deploy occupational therapy human resources.

Session 5: Occupational therapy education and scholarship – date TBA

A discussion of education and scholarship strategies for building capacity in the occupational therapy workforce.

In addition to offering the live webinars, WFOT will record the presentations to make them available online after the sessions.

To advance accessibility to occupational therapy, WFOT developed a hub of resources that can assist with addressing the priority actions and goals articulated in the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce. The Occupational Therapy Workforce Resource Hub contains resources developed by WFOT and other organisations. WFOT welcomes your submissions to the Hub that are relevant to workforce planning in occupational therapy.

WFOT is working on a broad range of initiatives related to the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce. Our initiatives include:

  • Promoting awareness, use and ongoing development of the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce
  • Monitoring progress and updating the Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce as needed
  • Participating in global development activities
  • Sharing implementation tools and resources
  • Serving as a focal point for workforce development knowledge generation and translation
  • Supporting development of occupational therapy in under-served areas
  • Promoting workforce leadership development

Every 2 years, WFOT with the invaluable contribution of its Member Organisations, produces the Human Resources project, a data set that provides a comprehensive global overview of the occupational therapy profession, capturing demographic and workforce data from WFOT Member Organisations worldwide. This initiative aims to offer valuable insights into the scale, distribution, and development of occupational therapy globally, and is utilised by WFOT, Governments, the World Health Organization and other international stakeholders.

The Human Resources project 2024 has launched in a new interactive platform, where you can view the data, filter by region, export or download results, and share insights according to your needs. The platform can be accessed here.