Psychology - Forgot your username

170 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING
‘Chartered Psychologist’ is legally recognized. To achieve Chartered status, individuals
must have:
• an accredited first degree in psychology giving GBR
• a recognized postgraduate qualification, or undergone approved postgraduate
training and supervision
• been judged ‘fit to practise’ independently
• agreed to follow a strict code of conduct and be answerable to a disciplinary
system, in which non-psychologists form the majority.
Registration is not currently a legal requirement to work as a psychologist as
things stand, but employers tend to prefer to appoint people with Chartered
status as it gives some guarantee about qualifications and professional standards.
The Directory of Chartered Psychologists, listing all those who have achieved this,
can be found in main public libraries and is available on the BPS website.
The BPS also monitors the continuing professional development (CPD) of
practising psychologists, which ensures that they remain up to date with current
practice.
At the postgraduate level, these regulatory functions will be taken over by the
Health Professions Council (HPC) sometime during 2009, so watch our website
for more details on regulation and continual updates on the state of play as this
switch is effected. At the time of writing the government’s draft legislation is
proposing to register seven specialist areas of psychology: clinical, counselling,
educational, forensic, health, occupational, and sport and exercise, and two
generic titles ‘Registered Psychologist’ and ‘Practising Psychologist’.
In each case it is the title that would be protected. So it will become illegal for
someone to call themselves by one of these nine titles unless they have followed
the appropriate training course accredited by the HPC and have subsequently
kept up to date in their area by undertaking regular continuous professional
development (CPD) (see page 176).
6.4 Careers in psychology
There are many career strands in psychology and we discuss the major ones, listed
below, on our website with up-to-date information on contacts for the next step,
training, funding and employment opportunities.