Frequently Asked Questions

The Medical Training Survey (MTS) results will provide a snapshot of medical training in Australia, through the eyes of doctors in training. Survey data will be used by employers, colleges, educators and others to strengthen medical training.

By getting anonymous feedback from doctors in training, the survey will deliver robust national data that will help identify strengths in medical training, as well as potential issues so these can be addressed. It’s about quality improvement.

Medical Training Survey data will:

  • better understand the quality of medical training in Australia
  • identify how best to maintain and improve the quality of medical training in Australia, and
  • identify and help deal with potential issues in medical training that could impact on patient safety, including environment and culture, unacceptable behaviours and poor supervision, to enable stakeholder action.

The idea for the MTS came from doctors in training, educators and employers, who all wanted accurate data about the state of medical training in Australia.

The MTS is supported by doctors in training, jurisdictions, specialist medical colleges, postgraduate medical councils, Australian Medical Association, Australian Medical Council, Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, Doctors’ Health Services, Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand, Medical Council of NSW, Australian Private Hospitals Association and the Australian Medical Students’ Association. All these stakeholders have contributed to the development of the survey and the policies around the administration of the survey.

The Medical Board of Australia and Ahpra are funding, organising and running the survey, with data collected independently analysed and reported on by research agency, EY Sweeney.

Yes. 

Doctors in training helped design the MTS from the beginning. There are doctor in training representatives that sit on the Consultative Forum and Steering Committee. 

Other doctors in training have helped by testing the survey questions. We wanted to make sure the questions were easy to understand, written clearly and that survey answers would properly capture the experience of medical training in Australia. Doctors in training were great at telling us what we had missed, what worked well and what we needed to improve.

You can read the survey questions here

There are five versions of the survey, tailored to different groups of doctors in training.

There is a survey each for interns, prevocational and unaccredited trainees, specialist non-GP trainees, specialist GP trainees and international medical graduates.

The MTS asks questions about your training program and training post. In the case of specialist trainees, it asks about your interaction with your College. The survey includes questions about your supervision, access to teaching, workplace environment and culture and your wellbeing.

There are different versions of the survey to reflect the particular training environment and/or curriculum of doctors who are at different stages in their training. For example, while there are some similarities in the questions that we ask interns and accredited trainees, there are also marked differences in their training environment that are reflected in the survey.

Participating in the MTS amplifies the voice of trainees. Share your experience to put the lived experience of trainees at the centre of positive change. Past trainees lobbied for the MTS. You can also use the data built by past trainees to make your training choices.

Doctors in training can do the survey on their phone, tablet or laptop in two ways:

  • interns and international medical graduates log into their Ahpra portal and click on the MTS portal task
  • all other doctors in training can do the MTS when they renew their medical registration.

Just follow the prompts after renewing your registration and doing the workforce survey, which is different from the MTS. The MTS will appear after you pay your medical registration. If you can’t complete the survey when you renew, you can come back to it by logging into your Ahpra portal and clicking on the MTS portal task.

The survey has been designed to use minimum possible bandwidth.

If you can’t fill out the survey because of connectivity problems, please contact our dedicated survey phone line on 1300 419 495. Our survey phone line is staffed during business hours and logs messages for after-hours help.

Or contact the helpdesk by email at MTS@ahpra.gov.au.

Your answers will help strengthen medical training in Australia. Aggregated results will provide a snapshot of the quality and experience of medical training in Australia through the eyes of doctors in training.

The MTS results will build on previous years’ results and continue to create a comprehensive, national picture of the strengths and weaknesses of medical training across states, territories and medical specialties in Australia. Results will identify current strengths and provide a baseline for ongoing improvements.

The more trainees doing the survey, the better the quality of the data.

All doctors in training in Australia. This includes interns, hospital medical officers, resident medical officers, non-accredited trainees, postgraduate trainees, principal house officers, registrars, specialist trainees and international medical graduates. Career medical officers who intend to undertake further postgraduate training in medicine can also participate.

The 2026 MTS opens early August. For those eligible to participate log on to your Ahpra portal to complete the MTS.

All IMGs with limited or provisional registration are required to have a training plan as a requirement of registration. Therefore, the Medical Board regards IMGs to be ‘in training’.

Doctors in training will be able to complete the survey online via their phone, tablet or PC/laptop.

Interns and IMGs

Interns and IMGs will receive an email invitation to participate in the MTS through a portal task in your Ahpra portal.

Doctors in training who are not interns or IMGs

Doctors in training who are not interns or IMGs can do the survey when they renew their medical registration online. The survey will appear upon completion and payment of registration. See below:

Successful payment

MTS appears

If you lose internet connection or close the survey window, you will be able to re-enter the survey by logging in to your Ahpra portal and opening your MTS Portal Task.

Yes.

You can save and exit the survey and come back to complete it in your Ahpra portal, under your Portal Tasks. Ensure you click ‘Save and Exit’ in the MTS before leaving the survey.

No.

Once you have submitted your survey you will not have the ability to re-complete it. If you have answered a question incorrectly and would like to speak to a member of the MTS project team, please contact MTS@ahpra.gov.au.

No. The MTS is a voluntary survey.

Doctors in training can opt-out of MTS reminder emails by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in reminder emails or contacting MTS@ahpra.gov.au.

Yes.

Taking part in the Medical Training Survey (MTS) is confidential and secure.

The MBA and Ahpra will provide de-identified data to our survey partner, EY Sweeney, who will analyse and report on the results in a de-identified and aggregate format. No personal information will be provided to EY Sweeney. Information participants provide in the MTS will be stored and handled securely.

The MTS data is stored on Australian data servers, so you can be confident your data will be managed strictly in accordance with Australian Privacy Law. Your answers will be handled in line with the privacy policies of Ahpra and EY Sweeney.

EY Sweeney is a research agency contracted by the Medical Board of Australia and Ahpra to analyse and report on the MTS data and results.

  • This is an anonymous survey and your answers will be handled in line with the privacy policies of the Medical Board, Ahpra and EY Sweeney.
  • Only de-identified survey data will be provided to EY Sweeney for analysis.
  • Your answers will be published in a de-identified and aggregated format in all reporting of results.
  • De-identified and aggregated data will be published and shared with Colleges, postgraduate medical councils, employers and other key stakeholders to drive training improvements.
  • Data can be accessed under the ‘Results’ tab on the MedicalTrainingSurvey.gov.au website.

The results for previous MTS’ are available in the Results section of the website. The results can be accessed in a variety of formats; static reports, high-level snapshots and via the interactive data dashboard where you can create your own tailored reports.

All survey results are published in a de-identified and aggregate format. Consistent with our commitment, we have prioritised confidentiality so results are only published when there were 10 or more responses.

Survey results are displayed as both charts and tables.

There are two ways to access the results. There are national and static reports accessible from the Reports and results page, or you can use the interactive data dashboard to Create your own report. You can use the data dashboard to tailor your own report using pre-defined filters and/or the comparison tool.

Find out how you can create your own tailored report using the MTS datasets including how to; compare datasets across years, specialist medical colleges and states/territories, switch on the national average, change how the data is displayed (graph or table format), output your tailored report as a PDF or Excel file and see the statistical significance. Click play on the instructional video below and discover the many possibilities of the MTS interactive data dashboard.

Instructional video on how to use the interactive data dashboard

We have prioritised confidentiality. Data is only available in a de-identified and aggregate format in two ways – through national and static reports and by using the interactive data dashboard.

You can create your own report using the ‘advanced filters’ and/or comparison tool in the Create your own report section of this website.

Use the ‘advanced filters’ and/or comparison tool in the data dashboard to select the fields you want, hit ‘apply’ and the specific results you’ve requested will be displayed (providing confidentiality thresholds have been met). You can download the results or have a PDF or Excel report emailed to you by submitting your email when you are ready to generate your report. It will take no longer than 1 business day to receive your report.

You can compare data against the national response or previous years in the Create your own report section. Use the comparison tool on the left-hand side under the ‘optional’ heading.

You can compare the results from previous years using the new functionality on the interactive data dashboard. See how the trends from year to year by clicking here.

There are two possible reasons data may not be displayed. Either there were fewer than 10 responses to that question and data is not published to protect confidentiality, or the specific group of doctors in training did not receive that specific question in the survey.

When there were fewer than 30 responses to a question, a disclaimer that ‘caution should be taken when interpreting the results’ applies. When there are fewer than 30 responses there is a greater risk that the result is due to chance, compared to questions with >30 responses.

All findings are rounded to a whole number. This means that 0% and 0.1%-0.49% are rounded down to 0%. Therefore, users accessing the data in the static reports or via the data dashboard may notice that some responses do not add to 100%. This is due to the rounding algorithm applied.

Tests for statistical significance have been conducted to compare any difference between years. These tests have been undertaken at the 95% confidence level. This means that if there is a statistically significant difference between the results for answers within a certain year compared to the previous year, we can be 95% confident that the difference has not occurred by chance and that it reflects a genuine difference between years.

To help with interpretation of charts and tables, the following have been included:

MTS data are being used to improve medical training and shape training choices. In a buyer’s market, doctors in training are using MTS data to compare training sites and specialties. Stakeholders are using it for quality improvement in medical training. Read more by visiting ‘Case studies’ on the MTS website.