COVID-19 vaccination training program

Information about free and accredited training modules for people involved in the administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

In preparation for Australia’s vaccine rollout, authorised COVID-19 vaccination providers must complete COVID-19 vaccination training. This will ensure our workforce is competent in the safe management and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Australian Government has partnered with the Australian College of Nursing to develop and deliver free and accredited training modules.

The training is available for all authorised COVID-19 vaccination providers. This will include:

• health professionals in hospitals
• general practices,
• state and Commonwealth vaccination clinics
• Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
• pharmacies.

The training is also available for non-clinical and administration staff. They can access the non-clinical modules of the training such as handling, storage and administration.

Training modules

COVID-19 vaccination training modules are categorised into 2 groups, core and additional.

Core COVID-19 modules involve training for COVID-19 vaccination more broadly. Additional COVID-19 modules are specific to individual vaccine candidates.

Core COVID-19 training modules will cover:

• COVID-19 introduction
• handling and storage
• communication and purpose
• multi-dose vial (MDV) training
• documentation and reporting
• safety and surveillance monitoring and reporting for adverse events following immunisation

Additional COVID-19 training modules include specific training for:

• Pfizer/BioNTech (module available)
• Oxford University/AstraZeneca
• Novavax
• future vaccines (i.e as possible new vaccines emerge)

Enrolling in the training

The training is being provided free to all authorised COVID-19 vaccination providers. These first modules are targeting health professionals in hospitals who will be administering the Pfizer vaccine.

Health professionals are advised to seek confirmation from their employer that they will be a vaccination provider before accessing the training.

To enrol in the course COVID-19 vaccination providers are required to:

• have already undertaken routine immunisation training specific to their profession; and
• have the authority to administer vaccinations in their relevant state and territory.

Administrative or non-clinical staff can enrol to access non-clinical modules.

Online training 

All training content is delivered through an e-learning platform at no cost.