Education and training of psychologists

The pre-graduate education and training of psychologists is five-year long (300 ETCS) in Czech Republic.

Faculties provide this education and training and they currently offer both models – undivided Master program (at Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University Brno, Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University Olomouc), and two-phase 3+2 Bachelor and Master program (at the other Faculties – Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Science of Masaryk University in Brno, Faculty of Education of Charles University). Further, Ostrava University offers a Bachelors degree in Psychology.

The curriculum is not unified, but the content of all programmes is consistent with minimal standards stated by EuroPsy (European Certificate in Psychology). Approximately 10% of curricula is flexible and mirrors the deepened expertise of the respective Faculty (e.g. greater accent on social cognition perspective at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno etc.).

Description and arrangement of supervised practice

The students accomplish the basic qualification after (3-4) state graduation exams that cover integrative knowledge of basic psychological disciplines, methodology and applications. The graduates then may enter professional field but they are not fully qualified for independent practice. The pre-graduate students are encouraged to enroll into extracurricular training courses, which may enlarge students’ professional skills already during their academic studies (e.g. accredited courses of crisis intervention, experiential parts of psychotherapeutic trainings, etc.). These courses are seen as important, but not sufficient for post-qualification training.

The supervised practice is specified differently for specializations, for some of them it is regulated by legislation of relevant branch (e.g. educational counselling or clinical psychology). The post-qualification training is not systematically regulated within the whole psychological profession; separate specialization areas have developed their own requirements (meeting or even surpassing the minimum EuroPsy limits – equivalent of 60 ECTS).

In the case of Czech republic, individual ministries and professional associations bodies are responsible for supervision after graduation. Supervision is well developer in health care, education,labour and social services and security forces – from the practice under supervision up to the training of the supervisors.

Legal and regulatory arrangement for psychologists

The practice of psychologists in Czech Republic is regulated by the Trade Laws no. 455/1991 and no. 286/1995 Coll., which regards psychological counselling and diagnostics as bound activity. A psychologist can apply for a Trade licence after three years of practice and the letter of recommendation will be given to him by the workplace.

Norms specific to each of the Ministries (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Work and Social affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Transportation)  regulate the practice of psychologists in these sectors.