Salaries in Psychology

colosseum

I am starting to study pyschology in september and must admit I am very nervous. After doing some recent research on starting salaries it seems I can expect no more than around 25k after qualifying. As a mature student going back this is not good. Does anyone know how long it takes to reach a decent salary and also why I am reading there is a shortage in this area? Am I right in saying thats because the salaries dont justify the complexity of study?
Beginning to get cold feet!

The Black Oil

Qualifying as what? What area in psychology?

Not sure what you mean by a decent salary.

mhairt

Hi
It takes years of study before the salary really pays off in psychology. First you need your Degree, but to really progress you need to do a masters and PHD. The degree is really only the starting point.

colosseum

Thanks for the replies. Well I meant pretty much all the related areas of psychology for a grad seem to be pretty low salary wise. I understand it i a long process of study to get anywhere, can you shed any light on why there would be a shortage of psychologists according to career portals.ie?

Myksyk

Within Clinical Psychology the shortage relates to the insufficient number of graduates being trained. Simply put, the number of people graduating from the Clinical Training courses in NUIG, UL, UCD and Trinity has not been enough over the last few years to fill the vacancies.

In relation to salaries, fully qualified Clinical Psychologists and Educational Psychologists are probably the best paid non-medical grades in the Health and Education systems. Clinical posts at basic grade typicaly pay up to €70+K. Seniors get up to €90+k, Principals up to €110k and Directors above that again.

Moobui

The shortage in relation to Educational Psychologists is also due to a lack of graduates in the field. With Clinical Psychology there are a few universities offering the postgrad doctorate in Clinical Psychology but at the moment UCD is the only university offering a postgrad course in Educational Psychology. At present only 12 places are available in the south of Ireland if you wish to train as an Educational Psychologist.
With regard to pay in this area the pay is comparable to those posted for Clinical Psychologists.
If you are starting your degree this year and wish to work in either clinical or Educational psychology the very earliest you could expect to be qualified is in 6-7 years and the salary for newly qualified psychologists is around 55,000.

The Black Oil

The Report of the Task Force on Autism mentioned a target of having 200 NEPS psychologists employed by the end of 2003. From what I recall we haven't reached that figure yet, hardly surprising. I know it's easy to jump up and down about government but it's a disgrace that there's only 12 places for Ed Psych.

Moobui

Yes it is a ridiculous situation as the demand for Educational Psychologists is so great. The number qualifying each year does not even replace the number retiring. I think the number of psychologists employed by NEPS is under 150 and not much chance of that number increasing. There was talk of other colleges introducing a postgrad in EdPsych but this has not happened yet.

kitkat.3b4t

Hi I studied psychology with OU and graduated in 2006. I was interested in doing Ed or clinical psychology but the truth is that it is nearly impossible to get on these courses and you would probably need a postgrad and specific work experience to even be considered. Although the course I did was very interesting and I enjoyed it thoroughly, when I started my studies I didnt realize how difficult it was to develop a career in this area.

Now I wish I'd have studied psychotherapy because after a 3 year undergraduate diploma you are qualified to work and earn money. There are much more openings in this area than psychology. Maturity and life experience is valued, whereas in psychology I have found academic qualifications are onsidered paramount .

The career structure of psychology suites young people from affulent backgrounds. This situation is compounded by UCD insisting those who apply for the doctural clinical course submit there leaving cert results. This practice disadvantages a lot of mature students who may not have done well or even done their leaving cert.

If you are interested in eventually doing counselling than I would advise that you study that subject now particularly if time and finances are a concern. Registered pychologists earn a good salary but attaining this takes years, is very expensive and not conducive to a family/social life.