Charles Sturt University and Marathon Health team up to keep regional allied health workers

Since 2019, Charles Sturt's students have completed placements at Marathon Health in speech pathology, occupational therapy, social work, psychology and human services, with nearly 40 per cent of those students being employed by Marathon upon graduation.

Charles Sturt Vice-Chancellor Professor Renée Leon said the agreement would ensure a reliable pipeline of allied health workers in regional Australia by providing students with workplace learning and graduate employment opportunities.

READ ALSO:

"Charles Sturt University is committed to building a strong regional health workforce through the provision of job-ready graduates," she said.

"Our allied health courses - indeed all of our courses - are centred on hands-on, real world experience which ensures our students are ready to have an impact in the careers as soon as they graduate."

In the past five years, Charles Sturt University has produced more than 4000 allied health graduates.

Marathon Health, which also has programs in mental health, chronic disease, occupational health, speech pathology, First Nations health and after-hours GPs, also offers work placement and graduate opportunities for positive behaviour support practitioners.

Laura Wrigley from Dubbo studied Occupational Therapy at Charles Sturt in Albury-Wodonga, completed placement with Marathon Health, and is now currently employed with the company.

"I grew up regionally so I know that healthcare can be really hard to access in country communities," she said.

"Studying with CSU meant I was able to develop my skills and knowledge in a regional area ... and now being employed with Marathon Health, I am able to work towards improving health outcomes for regional and rural communities."

Marathon Health CEO Megan Callinan said meeting the needs of the community was at the heart of what Marathon and Charles Sturt do, and this partnership was a positive step for regional communities.

"We have the largest not-for-profit allied health workforce in regional NSW and know first-hand how important it is to continue to build employment opportunities for healthcare professionals in regional areas," she said.

"This partnership will support the development of our 'grow your own' model of graduate employment, keeping graduates in regional areas."

The partnership is the latest in a string of agreements recently announced between Charles Sturt and industry leaders which will allow the University to grow.

IBM Australia will base its Client Innovation Centre at the University's Bathurst campus. The partnership with IBM Australia will provide scholarship opportunities for students, grow the University's cyber security and data science research capabilities and allow for the co-creation of IT courses.

It was also announced this week that Axiom Connected will co-locate its new Australian headquarters to Charles Sturt in Port Macquarie in January 2022.