Occupational Therapy (Apprenticeship)

Welcome to the Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship degree course. As you take your first steps on the road to becoming an Occupational Therapist, you will no doubt have a mixture of excitement and nerves. We will be here to support you every step of the way and hope it will be a rewarding experience, that will challenge and stretch your thinking as you move towards your new role as a qualified health professional.

Our Course provides the following.

1. An Innovative curriculum that covers occupational justice, and innovation & entrepreneurship that will help you understand and lead on service development and global issues, as well as local priorities.
2. Outstanding support for you and your mentor. You will both receive informal newsletters to keep you in touch with our occupational therapy student community and university opportunities. We provide your mentor with training, regular meetings, access to our virtual learning platform and portfolio tools to support learning.
3. Robust employer communication and feedback strategies with your employers, you will have regular tripartite meetings to review your learning outcomes and provide ongoing support. We work closely with your employers to support your overall academic progress via consortium meetings and contract review meetings.

Please note that timings given in your Course Welcome Week for uniform measure and issue events and occupational health vaccinations are indicative timings only. Please check below for the exact time of your appointment, which will be dependent on your surname (A-Z).

You will of course be keen to get as organised as possible before starting your studies. The most important things at this stage are to ensure you have support strategies in place to prepare for balancing work and study. If possible, find out who your workplace mentor is going to be and introduce yourself. When you arrive at university you will also be allocated a Personal Academic Tutor, known as your PAT, who will be there to support you with any personal or general academic matters you might have throughout your time at university. They will also be the University representative at your tripartite meetings, this is a regular meeting between you, your mentor and the University to discuss your experience, learning, and progress.

• Occupational Therapy is a dynamic, diverse and evolving profession. Our course will enable you to become a qualified occupational therapist who is able to help create solutions to everyday problems experienced by the people or communities who access your services.

• This designed course has been developed so that you are able to meet all the professional requirements to register with the Health Care Professions Council. You will engage in series of theoretical and practice modules throughout the course, this includes classroom-based learning, virtual learning, and practice learning on placement.

Please ensure that you engage with all Occupational Health, DBS or Placement planning activities required by the Admissions Team. Failure to complete this by the time you register on the course may result in you not being able to proceed with your studies.

We are proud to be an inclusive University that supports a diverse community of students. Please note that if you have a disability or would like to learn more about the support that we can offer to students, please visit the Disability and Mental Health website.

We would encourage you to review the course structure and module options via your course page before you arrive.

There are also a number of resources you can look at including RCOT and HCPC.

If you would like some introductory reading you can try:

Dancza, K. (2018) Implementing occupation-centred practice : a practical guide for occupational therapy practice learning. London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Bassot, B (2020) The Reflective Journal. London: Red Globe Press

If you need to brush up on your study skills, this 1-hour guide is available as an e-book through the CCCU library:

Potter, M. (2011) Study Skills. Richmond: Trotman