Occupational Therapy

At Worcester, you'll be taught by qualified occupational therapists and will spend at least 1,000 hours on professional placements. You'll get ready for practice in our specialist skills simulation facilities and a specially converted house, with adapted kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.

As an occupational therapist, you'll work collaboratively with people who have difficulties carrying out day-to-day occupations (activities). This may be due to physical or mental health difficulties, learning differences, age related changes, transitions in life (for example becoming a parent or moving into retirement), trauma (whether physical or emotional), social circumstance or an intersection of many different things.

This might involve making changes to the environment in which people carry out their occupations, working with someone who is learning new ways to do things or working through a recovery process where someone is able to return to previous occupations or discover new and different occupations.

As well as working with individuals, their families and other people that are important in their lives, you could also work with people in groups. You may work as the only occupational therapist in an area, or as part of a team. You may work in people’s own homes, hospital settings, social services departments, charity organisations, prisons, schools, and many other areas. You’ll work with people of all ages so that they can achieve the occupations they need and want to be able to do to live fulfilled lives.

This course has a strong practical focus and you’ll spend a lot of time out on work placements in a variety of settings. When on campus, you’ll be taught through a mix of lectures, interactive seminars, and practical skills sessions. You’ll also have access to Ability House – a converted house with specialist adaptations made to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms where you can practice your skills.

An employability module in your final year will develop your interview skills, explore available job roles, and support you in completing applications.

At Worcester, you’ll be taught alongside other health and social care students, including physiotherapists, dietitians, social workers, mental health nurses, physicians associates, and doctors. This prepares you to collaborate with and work alongside other health and social care professionals, just as you will once you graduate.

Placements

By the end of this course, you’ll have built up at least 1,000 hours of professional experience. Our dedicated therapy placement team organise this for you, giving you a range of different experiences throughout the course.

Recent placements have included occupational therapy roles in:

• NHS and private hospitals

• Care farms

• Community mental health or learning disability teams

• Postural case services

• Woodland therapy settings

• Schools, both mainstream and specialist

• Charities and businesses

• Specialist equipment suppliers and services

Accreditation
This course is accredited by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, and approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

This means that when you graduate, you can register with the HCPC to practice under the protected title of occupational therapist.

About the University of Worcester

For almost three decades, we've been educating professionals to work in the health and social care sectors, from Nurses and Midwives to Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists, Paramedics to Physician Associates. Each year, hundreds of professionals graduate from Worcester and go on to make a significant contribution to society. In 2023 our new Three Counties Medical School welcomed its first cohort of students.

Join us at one of our regular Open Days: www.worcester.ac.uk/opendays

For a breakdown of the modules you'll study each year visit our course page. You can do this by scrolling to the bottom of this page and selecting 'Visit our course page'.

For detailed information about assessment, feedback, teaching and contact time visit our course page. You can do this by scrolling to the bottom of this page and selecting 'Visit our course page'.