I hope everyone has been enjoying the silly season, though I know many of us will be working. In this trainee matters update, I would like to highlight some important work occurring within the College and some brilliant future work that I think will have positive ongoing output for trainees.

The Members Advisory Committee, now chaired by our President-elect Dr Astha Tomar, was held in Melbourne in September. It was a productive meeting, which brought together the chairs of some of the largest committees within the College to help guide next steps on some major issues. One of these issues relates to the RANZCP’s new strategy around Lived Experience. Over the next few months and well into the future, our College will work more closely than ever with the extensive knowledge that patients, consumers, and their families bring to the practice and teaching of psychiatry. I am also extremely pleased to see that the Community Collaboration Committee once again has a trainee on its membership. I do truly believe that the way forward is alongside and together with the people we aim to help heal, and we cannot do this without a trainee voice, a voice of the future of psychiatry.

At the October Board meeting, the motion to support the trainee engagement strategy was ratified and fully supported. This was a significant piece of work from the members of the BCT, TAC, and the College staff. It was endorsed by the members of the MAC as well and will stand as a cornerstone for how the College aims to engage with trainees moving into the future. The key pillars are focussed around bi-directional, transparent, timely and targeted communication that focuses on trainees being heard, seen, and valued. I am hopeful we will see this mindset continue to have impact, as I have experienced firsthand, and seen the utility this strategy has already had, and I plan to talk more about this in the next few issues of this column.

I am proud to say that there has been substantial progress regarding Indigenous and Māori learning modules for trainees. This was identified by the TAC and BCT as a major issue that needed addressing and is also an AMC requirement for our College. The Board, TAC, and BCT will continue to work closely with the education and digital LearnIt departments on this important work. Additionally, by the time you are all reading this, our College will have sent out an EOI for a Fellow to play a crucial formalised role within the Education and Examinations section of the RANZCP. This will be an incredible opportunity to shape our learning space within our College, and I am proud to see it come to fruition and look forward to how it progresses.

Finally, I would also like to take a moment to make a shameless plug for the next annual Congress. I am getting more and more excited with each organising committee meeting! With diverse keynote speakers and a full gamut of different topics to be discussed in panels, workshops, and lectures, it will be a wonderful opportunity for CPD. Congress is also an exciting place to meet our future psychiatrists via the Psychiatry Interest Forum (PIF) program and (most importantly enjoy) socialising!