Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) is a competency-based practice profession. The SLP education curriculum emphasizes both theoretical and clinical training. Clinical practicums are one of the important training processes for building students’ clinical competencies. Through this process, students develop clinical skills in multifaceted aspects, including implementing clinical procedures, clinical reasoning, communication and professionalism. Traditionally, students’ competencies are assessed in an integrated manner. Very few assessments were used to assess their readiness for clinical practicums.

The Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology programme aims to ensure students are capable of implementing basic clinical procedures before further learning more complicated clinical skills such as clinical reasoning. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) was found to be an effective assessment tool to evaluate the students’ clinical skills and their competencies in various clinical skills across a number of health professional programmes. Hence, the MSc-SLP program adopted OSCE in assessing students’ readiness for clinical practicum. Prior to each clinical practicum, an OSCE was held. Students’ clinical readiness were assessed in using both pen-and-paper and procedural-type stations. Each OSEC consisted of approximately 10 stations targeting clinical skills that student will encounter in their upcoming clinical practicum. Each station was carefully design to ensure only pre-clinical skills are targeted. Student evaluations were collected after each OSCE. Students generally agreed OSCE was helpful in preparing them for their clinical practicums.