How to become a Speech and Language Therapist

In this recent podcast episode, we interview Olivia, a speech and language therapist for the NHS in London. We discover what the job entails and the true realities of the role of a Speech and Language therapist, to give you a flavour of their career. Below is a summary of the interview, but you can also hear the full podcast episode.

What type of Speech and language therapists are there?

There are speech and language therapists that work with adults, some with learning difficulties and who’ve had strokes. On the other side, Speech and language therapists work with nursery children, all the way up to teenagers, or even young adults.

What made her become a Speech and Language Therapist?

Her original background was drama and theatre. Before studying the course, she started running drama groups for children, and several children which had quite a lot of speech and language issues. That was the tipping point on becoming a Speech and Language Therapist.

Should you become a Speech and Language Assistant Therapist first?

Yes, it very useful in deciding if you want to do the job or not. It is quite competitive to get into the role. Quite a few people are interested in becoming an Assistant, as you don’t need to have the Speech and Language Therapist qualification. It’s not as well paid, but it means you get lots of experience running therapy and working with lots of therapists.

What are the prerequisites for Speech and Language Therapist training?

You must have a lot of experience with adults and children to get into the course. At the time of her applying to the course, it was funded by the NHS. Now it isn’t funded now. If you’re interested, have a look on the NHS site and they have section about how to get into the career and then you can look at all the courses available across the UK. It isn’t a light decision, as you must train for two – four years and have a lot of experience before.

What is the speech and language therapist salary?

The NHS website will provide the pay scales that you’ll be on. You can also go onto lots of private
practices, which pays more. The starting salary normally is slightly over £30,000 and every year it goes up a pay scale. It’s quite complicated how it works, but the first two years are one level, and then you go up a couple of thousand and you might get promotions. Once you become a therapist for a year to 18 months, you might look at going up to the next band. To become a specialist therapist, your role is more operational, and you supervise a few of the newly qualified therapists, the salary goes up to £35,000
approx.

If you’re a manager and at the top, a highly specialist therapists, £40,000 is the starting salary (look at band five, band six and band seven). There are a few therapists that go up to what is called a band eight, which is about £45,000 to £50,000. That’s quite difficult and can be 10-15 years of experience.

Are there many speech and language therapist jobs out there?

Yes, if you’re looking at pediatric jobs (that’s working with children or young adults) there’s a real demand for speech and language therapists, with a low supply of applicants. The interviews are relatively hard, but if you are prepared with relevant experience and qualifications, you should be fine. The main demand is in the big cities, like Manchester, Birmingham, and London, less so, in remoter plac-es. It is more competitive in working with adults generally, as you need more experience

Speech and Language Therapy: NHS vs private - What is better?

It is a bit of postcode lottery, and some areas have more public funding from the NHS. As a newly
qualified, she decided to go with the NHS and work with them because they have amazing training with strong supervision. There’s some protected time for admin, which you might not get in a private therapist setting. In the NHS sector, there is more admin work (about 50% of your time will actually be spent doing admin). This involves writing reports, phoning, contacting, and logging everything you’re doing. The other is 50% face-to-face therapy interaction.

In a private sector, there is a lot more therapy time (you might only write notes). The downside of private therapy is obviously you’re running a business, you’re working for somebody who wants to make money. You might feel a patient doesn’t need your help, as much as the private therapist in charge thinks they do. There is less time to observe others, to train and build your own career because you’re running a business. However, there are some amazing private therapist’s practices out there that you can work for, or you can even set up a practice yourself. You’ll find lots of therapists do three days a week in NHS and then a few days privately. In the Private sector, you could earn something around 70 pounds an hour.
To become an independent speech and language therapist, check out the ASLTIP https://asltip.com/ (The Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice.

What person should never be Speech and language therapist?

Someone who’s interested in just money because you must care for people in this role. In every single client, you’ll always see something different, or they’ll learn how to say the sound in a different way to another child, or they learn how to learn a language in different way. You must be really creative. If you work with adults, there’s more of the kind of dysphagia side of things, which is the swallowing
assessments, which is more medically focused.

Do you need a degree to become a Speech and language therapist?

You need to study either an undergraduate degree or post-grad diploma in speech and language therapy. You can’t just go into the job (unless you become Speech and Language Therapist Assistant). This takes two to four years and gives you a lot of the background. The most essential part is knowing the science behind why you’re doing this. There’s a lot of theory and links to processing development of language and speech. You do need a background in science, but you will learn that within the course and how that links to audiology and communication skills.

Are you worried about the state of children's ability to learn language in the UK now?

There are more children that are having language delays and increasing difficulties that are linked with language. There are more children being diagnosed with autism with associated language and speech delay. However, more people are now aware of (SLT) Speech and Language Therapy, and most schools have an (SLT) Speech and Language Therapist working for them. There is more awareness about what speech language is.

What kind of links should people go to find out more?

If you’re in the UK, there is NHS jobs and there’s the Royal college of speech language therapy, which is shortened to, RCSLT.  If you’re interested in learning about speech and language is called ICAN and that’s a really good group.
Olivia, thanks for joining us. This is Career Taster, informal conversations with professionals to give you a flavour of a new career.

Return to the Career Pages and also to Listen to the Podcast Episode