Any Speech Therapists out there - advice please?

[sar123]

Hi. I am 38, currently on maternity leave but there is a strong possibility that I will be getting redundancy rather than returning to work. If that happens I would love more than anything to use some of my redundancy to retrain as a Speech and Language Therapist. It's something I've been interested in for many years but as the opportunity to give up work and go back to university has never been likely to be achievable I've never seriously pursued it. I've already done one undergraduate degree so I'm not sure I would get any funding. I would love some advice about how I would go about getting on a course - would i need to have had some practical experience eg shadowing a speech therapist at work and if so where is a good place to find someone. Would I need to pay all the tuition fees or would i get funding for some of it??? TIA!

bump

hi, im also v keen to start training as a SALT (thats what theyre called, dontcha know!) and you will def get funding whether you do a post grad or an undergrad degree. you will also get an NHS bursary to cover costs especially if you have children and you pay a mortgage!
the post grad course does pay more of a bursary than the undergrad but then the post grad diploma/MA is really tough hours-wise (9-5, mon-fri about 40 wks of the yr).
For experience they like you to visit as many different clinics as you can, eg children, elderly, stroke patients.Just call your local speech dept at your hospital.

I'm being put off now by the fact there are no jobs for newly qualified SALTs now due to heavy NHS cutbacks!!