Speech and language therapist - career advice?

[InTheMoodelForStrudel]

Recently I’ve been considering retraining as a speech and language therapist. I currently work in in museums, but have experience in schools and libraries too.

I have relevant undergraduate and masters degrees, and so I’m looking at the different postgraduate pathways. Is there a decent chance of employment once qualified? Is there anything particular I should consider? I’d love to hear from anyone with any experiences or advice

There's a decent chance of employment... why do you want to get into SLT?

I became an SLT as I wanted to work with complex needs and make a difference... which I do but I spend about 75% of my day writing reports and chasing other agencies and liaising and doing admin... etc I really miss being hands on.

The pay is shockingly low considering the dysphagia specialism.

I do love my job and I do make a difference but in a very difference way to what I thought! I imagined lots of fun sessions developing joint attention and communication but instead I make a difference by training others to do this while I chase their funding and attend meetings.

Thank you for your reply! It’s actually something I considered years ago when I was doing my A-Levels, it was an English Language lesson where we watched a video about someone who worked as an SLT. I can’t remember why I didn’t pursue it then - I was the first in my family to go to university and I didn’t really know what I was doing.

My current role is non-demanding, and while I don’t hate it I often feel like I’m plodding along. I’d really like a job where I’m making a difference, working with people in different settings, and helping them.

Yes there’s a very decent chance of employment, I teach students on SLT courses and our graduate employment rates are always at or near 100%.
The two year postgrad MSc is very competitive though and also hard work and intense as a course. You have to be not only academically prepared but also really motivated, well organised and able to deal with a lot of competing modules and deadlines etc.

And yes the pay isn’t amazing but it’s also not awful and you get the reward of knowing you are definitely making a difference.

(When I say competitive I mean it can be hard to get a funded place as these are limited)

Also sorry should have said it’s not fully funded anymore, normal fees are just over £9k but you can get the £5k NHS bursaries so that gets you halfway to paying fees at least.

Thank you so much for all the information! I’ve emailed the university (handily not far from me at all) which runs a MSc course to ask for some more info (I need to double check my qualifications would let me go at fight in at MSc level) and perhaps I’ll try chat with some current students.

There were due to be graduate and postgrad apprenticeships but these seem to have been delayed.