Overview
Occupational therapy is a health and social care profession that is regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The title of Occupational Therapist is a protected title that only those on the professional register can use.
Occupational therapists help people, of all ages, and from all backgrounds to develop, recover, or maintain the skills to perform daily activities (occupations) that they want, need or have to do for their physical, mental and social wellbeing. These may include self-care, work responsibilities, school activities, sport and leisure pursuits, and social interactions. Occupational therapy aims to help people to overcome challenges and support them to live their best lives.
Occupational therapists work with adults and children who have a wide range of conditions, which may include physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or mental health conditions etc. They work in many settings including in NHS hospitals and clinics, GP Practices, schools, rehabilitation centres, care homes, vocational services, homeless services, charities and many others.
Occupational therapists consider the relationships between the activities or occupations alongside the challenges a patient faces. Based on these assessments, they then create person-centred intervention plans, and practical adjustments targeted at supporting recovery and improved function and the achievement of the service-user’s goals and aspirations.
This apprenticeship has been developed to offer a pre-registration route to professional registration as an occupational therapist. The apprenticeship has been developed in association a range of stakeholders including with local healthcare providers and service users. Its development recognises the demand locally, regionally and nationally to grow the existing occupational therapy workforce.
This apprenticeship programme offers you an exciting opportunity to train for professional registration, with the support of an employer, whilst earning a salary. You would study part-time and work part-time. The course is offered via blended learning. This means you will attend a mixture of face-to-face sessions, many of these will be conducted online, some face-to-face sessions will be delivered at our Bournemouth campus but, where possible, we have grouped on campus activities, to reduce travel and over-night accommodation costs.
You will also undertake practice-based learning and need to engage in asynchronous activities via our virtual learning environment (Moodle). The asynchronous activity can be completed at a time that suits you. In addition, tri-partite reviews will be held four times a year between yourself as the apprentice, your apprenticeship tutor, and your workplace supervisor.
The course is designed to align to the requirements of:
- The apprenticeship standard for occupational therapists from Skills England.Â
- The standards of proficiency of the regulator for the profession, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) learning and development standards for pre-registration education.
This means on successful completion you would be eligible to apply to join the professional register and become a full member of the professional body, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCoT)
Who is this course for?
 To join the occupational therapy apprenticeship, you will need to be working in a suitable role for at least 30 hours per week and have the support of your employer. If you are already employed in such a role e.g. as an occupational therapy assistant practitioner, you can discuss the possibility of your employer supporting you to become an occupational therapist via the apprenticeship route.
Alternatively, employers advertise degree apprenticeships throughout the year. Vacancies for apprenticeship roles can also be found on the NHS Jobs website. You will need to check there regularly.
You cannot apply directly to the University for a degree apprenticeship, please register your interest below and request an Expression of Interest form, and we will advise you further.
If you are an employer and are considering supporting one of your team to complete the apprenticeship, please register your interest below and request an Expression of Interest form, and we will seek to advise you further.
How is this course structured?
 The course runs over a three-year period, and you will study part-time, alongside working for your employer.
Through a combination of academic study; hands-on practice-based learning in clinical settings and mentorship, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge, skills, behaviours and values required of an occupational therapist.
You will learn how to work under pressure and to make important decisions in pressured environments. You will develop your ability to think critically and analytically, and you will become a resilient, reflective and empathetic practitioner able to respond to the complex needs of your clients.
The course emphasises the importance of occupation in human life, the relationship between occupation, health and wellbeing, and the power of occupation to transform lives.
You will develop effective solutions to the challenges your clients face and be ready to work with patients of all ages and backgrounds and contribute to transforming the lives of individuals, groups, and communities.
Under the guidance of mentors and educators you will have the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts in practice with service users from various backgrounds, and to collaborate with interdisciplinary healthcare teams to deliver excellent occupational therapy services.
For each unit of study, you will have a number of off-the-job learning hours, this refers to the indicative protected learning time, when you will not be working, designed and planned for a typical apprentice to achieve the level of competence required to successfully achieve this apprenticeship. Off-the-job learning will comprise: learner contact time (on campus face-to-face, live online learning) this could include seminars, workshops, practical sessions etc; tutor-guided learning; workplace planned learning hours; and independent study to allow you to extend your learning and prepare for assessments.
Health Sciences University offers state-of-the-art healthcare education provision supported by:
- Opportunities for multi-disciplinary learning
- AI enabled simulated clinical environments
- Onsite clinics and services
- Imaging services
- Treatment rooms etc
Our links with NHS and independent service providers, provide excellent opportunities for occupational therapy apprentices to undertake practice-based learning to train and develop across the breadth of environments where occupational therapists work. For example, we currently have practice-based learning partners in health and social care, telehealth, within national health care trusts, mental health trusts and services, in clinical settings and in education and research settings. You will have an opportunity to experience working with both adult and paediatric clients.
Course Details
The apprenticeship is delivered across three trimesters each year and the programme takes three years to complete.
Your academic studies include theoretical subjects which underpin the profession, including the study of the relationship between occupation, health and wellbeing; research, audit and service improvement and how to support excellent service-user centred care for people with diverse needs. You will also develop a strong understanding of what it means to be a registered professional.
The units align to the four pillars of practice of: professional practice; facilitation of learning; leadership; and evidence, research and development. This ensures that on graduation, you will be ready to start your career and have a framework for your further professional development.
You will undertake 1000 practice-based learning hours, supported by a practice-educator, which allow you to consolidate your academic learning and develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to form your identity as an occupational therapist and become a reflective autonomous practitioner. This practice-based learning will take place alongside occupational therapists working in a range of environments, away from your usual workplace.
Some of your units will be studied alongside apprentices from other allied health professions, namely diagnostic radiography, podiatry and speech and language therapy. Together you will undertake units that cover some key concepts common to all AHP professions such as professionalism, leadership, communication skills and health behaviour. You will also learn the skills to undertake research and quality improvement initiatives to enhance and improve practise in your chosen profession. These units will have some shared sessions but also profession specific sessions where appropriate. This interprofessional learning promotes collaborative practice, supporting better patient-centred care and improved patient outcomes and prepares you to operate in complex settings.
You will become a reflective practitioner, able to critique and reflect upon your clinical practice decisions, monitor and review interventions allowing you to modify care and instigate change to improve the service as necessary.
You will be assessed through a combination of assessment methods, that may include:
- Written reports and essays
- Presentations
- Practical activities
- Online examinations
- Portfolio of Evidence
Assessments are designed to reflect real-world tasks and the professional practice of an occupational therapist, focusing on the application of knowledge and skills in practical and meaningful contexts.
To be able to apply for this course you must already be employed in a suitable area that will support your apprenticeship.
It may be possible to undertake some of your practice-based learning hours within the organisation (not in the department) where you are employed. However, to ensure you cover the entire scope of practice for occupational therapists and that you experience different working environments, you will be required to undertake practice-based learning hours in a number of settings.
We currently have practice-based learning partners in health and social care, telehealth, within national health care trusts, mental health trusts and services, in clinical settings and in education and research settings. You will have an opportunity to experience working with both adult and paediatric clients.
You will need to be working a minimum of 30 hrs per week. Your employer is required to support your off-the job development time, this time may be spent attending classes at the University or online or on a placement or undertaking self-directed study.
Units
Year 1
Occupation and Occupational Science 
The aim of this unit is to introduce the underpinning concepts for occupational therapy, and to explain their importance to the occupation focussed practice. The main concepts to be considered are:
- Occupation as a concept
- Occupation and its relationship to health and well-being
- Occupational Science as a field of study
- The person, environment, occupation transactional relationship involved in occupational performance and theories relating to this, such as systems theory and adaptation theory
- The centrality of person-centred/client centred concepts to the practice of occupational therapy
- The experiential learning cycle and its links to engagement and to practice
Reflection and reflexivity, how these support well-being and cultural competence
Occupational Therapy Skills: Enabling, & Therapeutic Use of Occupation
This unit introduces the contemporary occupational therapy skills that therapists are expected to exhibit in practice. The focus will be on the profession specific skills as the more generic skills will be introduced in the introduction to professional practice unit. The curriculum will consider:
- Modes of occupational therapy practice: enabling occupation and using occupation/activity therapeutically
- The occupational therapy process
- Models of practice
- Approaches in practice
- Professional reasoning in occupational therapy
- Skills more specific to occupational therapy
- Therapeutic use of self as a cornerstone of practice
- Assessment and outcome measures
- Client-centred practice and duty of care
Occupational Therapy Placement 1: Developing Professional Reasoning
In this unit you will gain practical work-based experience working with a range of service users. You will have the opportunity to apply your theoretical knowledge and practice and the transferable skills that have been developed while studying other units on this course, applying them in practice placement environments.
This practice placement unit is composed of a 9-week equivalent placement focused on a specific area of occupational therapy practice.
On the placement you will actively contribute to the assessment and treatment of service users, under the supervision of your practice educator who will be a qualified occupational therapist.
You will also have the opportunity to demonstrate your developing professional reasoning and reflective practice skills and knowledge of theory/models of practice as they apply to identifying the occupational needs of your service users/clients and their individual circumstances, within the practice context and environment.
The Determinants of Health
This unit explores the multitude of factors that significantly influence the state of an individual’s health and wellbeing, and the interactions between them.
You will initially examine the anatomy, physiology, structure and function of the human body in health, through the lifecycle and in disease.
You will discuss the biological determinants of health including but not limited to genetics, pathology, anthropometry, adiposity, birth weight, age, sex, and ethnicity.
You will also explore the wider determinants of health such as the social and economic conditions such as education, income and environmental factors.
Your understanding of the complex and inter-related determinants of health will be crucial to your appreciation of health inequalities and to your ability to contribute to effective health care provision.
Foundations Of Professional Practice
The aim of this unit is to enable you to develop the professional behaviours associated with your chosen profession. You will explore your professional identity, communication skills, and ethical practice.
You will study relevant legislation, and local policies to ensure safety. This will include topics such as consent, capacity, safeguarding, and whistleblowing.
You will examine your responsibilities, professional values, and the relevant skills required for practice.
There will be a focus on the importance of personal health, resilience and wellbeing.
Health and Wellbeing the role of the Allied Health Professionals
This unit supports your role, as an allied health professional, in preventing ill health and supporting improvements in the health of those you interact with.
You will develop your understanding of health behaviours and health psychology, to help you better understand and engage with service users. You will study behaviour change theories and models together with education theories.Â
You will appreciate how good communication skills support the delivery of excellent health care services, through encouraging service users to share information, understand guidance and advice, motivate them to be involved in their own care, supporting them to adopt healthy lifestyles, and to protect their mental health.
Year 2
Occupational Therapy for Physical and Psychosocial Challenges
This unit builds on the units studied and the placement experience from year 1. It enables you to explore the range of practice for occupational therapy and how your skills are used across a range of settings with a variety of conditions.
This unit will consider occupational therapy skills used across the traditional divides for practice but will afford you the opportunity to consider more complex cases, where comorbidities, alongside the social aspects of occupational engagement require interventions which do not fit neatly within these boundaries.
The practical and ethical implications of these challenges will also be considered.
Occupational Therapy Placement 2: Assessment and Treatment
This unit builds on your practice-based experience gained in Occupational Therapy Placement 1 and the knowledge and skills developed during your other learning opportunities within the apprenticeship.
In this unit you will gain further practice-based experience working with service users in a new setting. You will have the opportunity to integrate your theoretical knowledge and the core practice skills that have been developed while studying other units on this course, applying them in practice-based environments and utilising your collaborative and transferable skills.
This practice placement unit is composed of one 10-week equivalent placement, usually focused on a specific area of occupational therapy practice. In the unit you will actively contribute to the assessment and treatment of service users.
Your learning experience will be shaped within the RCOT (2021) Career Development Framework: Guiding principles for occupational therapy.
Developing Professional Practice
This unit supports you to identify your own learning needs and supports the development of knowledge, skills and expertise within your role.
This unit will also explore your role in practice, considering principles of interdisciplinary working and communication within teams.
You will demonstrate reflective practice, considering your learning needs to develop a professional development plan.
Leadership and Learning in Allied Health
You will be introduced to leadership and educational theories and frameworks. This will include concepts such as learning and teaching strategies for professional practice development, learning needs analysis, and supervision and assessment strategies for professional practice.
You will explore your role within interdisciplinary working, including knowledge of other healthcare roles, collaboration with other professions, and communication with teams.
You will be introduced to concepts such as role modelling, coaching, mentoring and supervision, whilst considering the influence of emotional intelligence, coaching skills, and pastoral care.
You will be encouraged to consider your own values, beliefs, and roles to develop effective working to improve person-centred care.
You will consider the learning culture for development of care and services within your own organisation, identifying the key legal, ethical and professional accountability required.
Research, Improvement and Innovation Methods
This unit focuses on the development of your skills in relation to improvement of practice. You will learn research, audit, and quality improvement methodologies, including a broad understanding of change theory and management, and the philosophical underpinnings of these approaches.
This unit provides you with an opportunity to develop skills in data collection and data analysis, including both qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis and interpretation.
You will start to develop a critical understanding of the various designs and methodology used across projects. This will include the development of questions across research and service improvement, within the context of your workplace.
Year 3
Lobbying for Occupation: Service Design, Innovation and Sustainability
This unit therefore builds upon all of your previous academic work, and your practice placement experiences, and asks you to consider how the skills of an occupational therapists, of which you will now have a clear picture, can be used in even more diverse settings.
You will consider concepts relating to health promotion, service design and sustainability.
Occupational Therapy Placement 3: Independent Practice
This unit builds on your practice-based experience gained in Occupational Therapy Placements 1 and 2, and the knowledge and skills developed during your other learning opportunities within the apprenticeship.
In this unit you will gain further practice-based experience working with service users in a new setting. You will have the opportunity to integrate your theoretical knowledge and core practice skills that have been developed while studying other units on this course, applying them in practice-based environments and utilising your collaborative and transferable skills.
This practice placement unit is composed of one 12-week equivalent placement, usually focused on a specific area of occupational therapy practice.
In the placement you will actively contribute to the full occupational therapy process with a range of service users, essentially managing a small case load, where placement setting allows.
Independent Project for Allied Health Professions
This unit focuses on the development of a research or service improvement project which is relevant to your workplace or profession.
You will develop your ability to critically evaluate current knowledge in a topic area and build on your ideas from the Research, Improvement and Innovation Methods unit to plan and deliver an empirical project, as either a research or service improvement project relevant to your workplace or profession.
At the end of this unit, you will be able to report and disseminate findings to contribute to professional practice.
The Reflexive Practitioner
This unit will provide an opportunity to consolidate your learning and skills development as an autonomous independent learner, and further your development as a reflexive practitioner, being able to consider how your own feelings, reactions, and motives influence how you think and act in a given situation.
This unit will equip you with the cognitive and practical abilities to appreciate your role within the broader workforce. You will have the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the structure and function of health and social care in the UK and interprofessional and multidisciplinary working.
The unit also provides the opportunity for you to consider your scope of practice, future career pathways, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Additional Information
Health Sciences University offers state-of-the-art healthcare education provision supported by:
- Opportunities for multi-disciplinary learning
- AI enabled simulated clinical environments,
- Onsite clinics and services,
- Imaging services,
- Treatment rooms etc
Our links with NHS and independent service providers, provide excellent opportunities for occupational therapy apprentices to undertake practice-based learning to train and develop across the breadth of environments where occupational therapists work.
The Royal College of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) has published an education and career framework for occupational therapists, which provides guidance for the career progression for the profession. The framework is structured around the four Pillars of Practice and whole career development depends on expanding your knowledge and skills across all four pillars.
You may choose to develop your career in a specialist area e.g. working with children, or you may choose to maintain breadth in your work.
Entry Requirements
What qualifications do I need?
You will need to provide HSU with evidence of the following:
- Learners must have GCSE pass (A-C or 4-9) English and Maths or equivalent e.g. level 2 functional skills in English and Maths. AND
- Level 5 qualification i.e. FdSc Assistant Practitioner OR
- Three A Levels BBC or above  OR
- BTEC: DMM or above . OR
- Access to HE Diploma: A total of 112-120 UCAS points in a relevant Access to HE Diploma  OR
- International Baccalaureate: Overall grade of 30-32 points or higher l. OR
- T Level: Merit
Anything Else Needed
In addition, apprenticeship funding comes with the following requirements:
- You must be employed for a minimum of 30 hours per week, at least 50% of these hours must be working in England.
- Your employment must be linked to this apprenticeship course.
- You must have resided in the UK for a minimum of 3 years.
- You must be eligible for apprenticeship funding through your employer.
- You must not be enrolled on another apprenticeship
International registrants who are employed and have relevant visas can access apprenticeship programmes and therefore there should be no additional entry requirements .
You will need a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. It is standard for all UK students.
You are also required to have an occupational health screening prior to commencement on the course.
As this is an apprenticeship programme you will already be employed you are likely to have undergone these checks prior to commencing your employment, we will require confirmation form your employer. We will also require you to make an annual declaration of your continued good health, conduct and character.
To comply with the requirements of HCPC, the English as a second language requirements are higher than for other undergraduate programmes. The requirements are for the standard equivalent to level 7.0 of the International Language Testing System, with no element below 6.5. The test covers reading, writing, listening and speaking. Alternatively, the requirements for the Occupational English Test (OET), individuals must have no individual sub-test score below 300 and an overall minimum score 1400.
If you are not sure about anything listed here, talk to our Apprenticeship team by emailing apprenticeships@aecc.ac.uk complete the form below or call us on 01202 436200 and we will be happy to answer any question you have.
For more information about our admissions policies and procedures, including our Admissions Complaints and Appeals Policy, please see our latest policies.
International
To comply with the requirements of HCPC, the English as a second language requirements are higher than for other undergraduate programmes. The requirements are for the standard equivalent to level 7.0 of the International Language Testing System, with no element below 6.5. The test covers reading, writing, listening and speaking. Alternatively, the requirements for the Occupational English Test (OET), individuals must have no individual sub- test score below 300 and an overall minimum score 1400.
More information on permission to study in the UK can be found on our Visas and immigration page.
For more information about our admissions policies and procedures, including our Admissions Complaints and Appeals Policy, please see our latest policies.
Evidence of prior learning
An initial assessment of your knowledge, skills and behaviours will be undertaken as part of the process for determining eligibility for admission to the apprenticeship. This will include consideration of:Â
- Prior education, training or associated qualifications in a related subject area, including any previous apprenticeships undertakenÂ
- Learning or competence gained from prior work experience.Â
The University has a Recognition of Prior Learning Policy which can be found in the University’s Recruitment, Selection and Admission Policy and Procedure for Taught Courses.
Register your interest
Register your interest
To register your interest now or ask any questions about the course, please complete the form at the bottom of the page.
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Course Fees
Occupational Therapy – This apprenticeship has been allocated to the £24,000 funding band.
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Why choose Health Sciences University
There are many benefits to studying at Health Sciences University, from our expertise and history in teaching health sciences, to our state-of-the-art facilities, on-site clinical training, and of course our location on the beautiful Bournemouth coast.
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