Speech and language therapist

As a speech and language therapist, you’ll provide life-changing treatment, support, and care for both children and adults. 

Your support will also help people with difficulties beyond communication such as eating, drinking, and safe swallowing. You'll also help people with underlying physical or psychological problems. 

You’ll meet a huge variety of patients. The people whose life you’ll have a chance to change for the better might include children whose speech is slow to develop, or older people whose ability to speak has been impaired by illness or injury. You’ll also meet people of all ages with learning difficulties, who find it difficult to communicate with others. 

Your standard working week in the NHS will be around 37.5 hours a week. Elsewhere, your hours will depend on where you work. You may work evenings and weekends to suit private clients. If you work in the NHS, you’ll be paid on the Agenda for Change (AFC) pay system, typically on band 5. 

You will be able to claim £2,000 a year towards childcare costs through the NHS Learning Support Fund, and there’s funding available for adult dependants and some placement travel costs too. If you have a disability, there are grants to help with essential costs while studying via the Disabled Students’ Allowance.

If working on the NHS you will have access to one of the best pension schemes in the UK, as well as access to exclusive health service discounts and benefits at some of the most popular brands.

With experience, you could begin to specialise in different areas. You might focus on helping children with special needs to eat, drink, and swallow correctly. Or you may specialise in areas such as cleft lip and palate or learning disabilities. Other options include teaching or research. 

You might take courses in advanced clinical practice or move into management. As the head of a local speech and language therapy service, you would be responsible for a team of staff and for managing budgets. Some speech and language therapists also set up their own practice on their own or with other professionals. They can take on private clients, sometimes alongside NHS work.

You'll need a degree in speech and language therapy that's approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

If you've got a degree in a science or language-based subject, you could do a two-year fast-track postgraduate course in speech and language therapy.

You'll find it helpful to get some paid or voluntary experience in the health or care sector before you apply for a course.

Entry requirements for an undergraduate degree include:  

• two or three A levels along with five GCSEs (grades A – C) including English language, maths, and science

Or equivalent qualifications include:

• a BTEC, HND or HNC which includes science
• a relevant NVQ
• a science-based Access course
• equivalent Scottish or Irish qualifications

Every university sets its own entry requirements, so it’s important to check with them directly. 

A degree apprenticeship in speech and language therapy has been approved. This will offer an alternative route to registration with the HCPC. 

There are no nationally set entry requirements for degree apprenticeships – this will be down to the employer offering the apprenticeship – but you will usually need four or five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a degree apprenticeship.

Apprenticeships will be with employers, with study at university, and vacancies will appear on the NHS Jobs website and the government's Find an Apprenticeship website.