Finding a job as a speech and language therapist

As you may know it is increasingly difficult for new graduates to find a job as an allied health professional within he NHS.  Latest figures show that 80% of new grads can not find jobs.  Within speech and language therapy this figure is growing year on year.  Some universities are now recommending that trained therapists take on jobs as speech and language therapy assistants, to gain experience.  However, SLT departments within the NHS are reluctant to take on graduates as assistants as they are not likely to stay in the job long term.  

So why is there a crisis in jobs for newly qualified speech and language therapists?

The problem has occurred due to massive cutbacks in NHS spending.  The government decided that too much money had been pumped into the NHS and wanted Trusts to come out of debt.  Instead of making redundancies many posts were frozen, meaning that when people left they were not replaced.  This has led to speech and language therapy departments being unable to recruit new therapists.

Currently there are not enough trained speech and language therapists to meet the needs of the population.  Consequently the NHS ’sponsors’ students to train as speech and language therapists.  However, despite the cutbacks and lack of jobs, places on courses have not reduced.  This means that year on year more newly qualified therapists are coming through and being unable to gain employment.  It is now commonplace that new grads are having to wait 12 months or more to find there first job. 

 What can you do to find a job as a newly qualified SLT?

There are many ways you can try to find a job.  Firstly don’t limit yourself to working in one area of the country.  This will increase your chance of finding employment.  Secondly, send your CV out to as many places as possible.  Take on as much voluntary work as you can to make your CV stand out from others.

Thirdly, make an excellent impression whilst you are on placement.  This way if a job comes up in the department you stand a good chance of a least getting an interview.  Next, try not to specialise too early.  Even though you might want to work with adults perhaps take a Paediatric job to get a foot into the department. If you can not find a job consider working abroad to gain experience.  You will gain far more experience working as a therapist than an assistant.  It will also look good on your CV and expose you to different models of therapy provision.  Personally I would avoid working as an SLT assistant as you may find it too frustrating not being able to do what you are trained to. 

Newly qualified speech therapists and private therapy

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists recommends that you are qualified for a minimum of two years before taking on private speech and language therapy.  This is to make sure that you have a good level of experience before working autonomously. However, with the crisis in recruitment for newly qualified therapists they may be forced to revise this recommendation.  As long as a new grad can access regular supervision from a specialist speech and language therapist and the client is aware that the therapist is newly qualified, therapy can still be effective and not put the therapists or the client at risk.