DEGREE GUIDE

Occupational Therapy

What do Occupational Therapy degrees involve?

Occupational Therapy degrees teach you how to help people of all ages overcome physical, mental, and emotional challenges to live independently and improve their quality of life. You will explore key areas such as anatomy and physiology, psychology, rehabilitation techniques, assistive technology, and therapeutic interventions. These courses help you develop strong problem-solving, communication, and practical skills while learning how to assess patients' needs and create personalised treatment plans. You will also gain hands-on experience through clinical placements in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centres, and community settings. With professional accreditation and real-world training, you’ll be prepared for a rewarding career supporting individuals in healthcare, social care, and specialist therapy services.

Example
Modules

Therapeutic Use of Self: Learn how to use your own communication and emotional insight as part of the therapy process, building trust and effective therapeutic relationships.

Structure and Function of the Human Body: Explore anatomy and physiology through practical activities like movement analysis and surface anatomy.

Essentials for Allied Health Professionals: Gain core skills for practice, including reflective learning and collaborative work with other healthcare students.

Common Degree Names

💼 Clinical placements are compulsory and built into all Occupational Therapy degrees from Year 1.
🌍 Study abroad is offered at some universities.

BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy
BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy and Health
BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy (with Foundation Year)

Occupational Therapy is a vocational degree approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Occupational Therapy helps people overcome barriers to everyday activities – whether due to illness, injury, or disability. Because you'll combine scientific knowledge with practical problem-solving for real people, universities look for both a health or science background and evidence that you understand what caring for others involves.

Subjects that can strengthen your application:

Biology – essential or strongly preferred by many providers
Psychology or Sociology – helpful for understanding people and behaviour
Physical Education (PE) or Sports Science – useful for movement and rehabilitation
Health & Social Care – a good foundation for patient-centred practice

✨ Biology plus another relevant subject (Psychology, PE/Sport, Health & Social Care) is a widely accepted combination. This is a clinical course with interviews, DBS checks, and placements – see Other Requirements tab.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Health and Social Care (being phased out) or Applied Science (being phased out), often with specified biology/psychology units
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside A-levels that meet the subject requirements above
T-Levels in Health or Science
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with a science or social science subject (such as Biology, Psychology, or Sociology) at Higher Level among your IB subjects (minimum two, ideally three), alongside your Career-Related Study; a Health and Social Care pathway would be directly relevant

Occupational Therapy degrees are approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and lead to professional registration. Always check specific course requirements.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses ask for:

GCSE English Language, Maths and Science at grade 4/C or above, or equivalents such as National 5s or MYP

📘 Strong Science and Maths at this level will help with statistics, lab work, and evidence-based study.

💬 Interviews
Occupational Therapy degrees require an interview as part of the admissions process. These may be Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), panel interviews, or values-based discussions, designed to assess your communication skills, motivation, and suitability for this patient-facing profession.

🔒 DBS Check

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is required before you start clinical placements, as you'll be working with people who may be vulnerable due to illness, disability, or mental health conditions. Any serious criminal convictions may affect your ability to register with the Health and Care Professions Council.

⚕️ Health Check

An occupational health check is required to make sure you can meet the demands of the course and placements.

🔍 Work Experience
Not formally required, but universities expect you to understand what occupational therapists actually do — and practical experience is the most convincing way to show this. OT is about helping people do the everyday activities that matter to them, so any experience where you're supporting someone to be more independent is relevant. Volunteering in care homes, community centres, disability organisations, or with charities supporting older people or those with mental health conditions all give you useful insight. If you can arrange shadowing with an occupational therapist, that's ideal — but it's not the only route. What matters is being able to talk about what you observed and what it taught you about how people's daily lives are affected by illness, disability, or life circumstances.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What draws you to helping people do the everyday things that matter to them? Occupational therapy is about enabling people to live as independently as possible — whether that's recovering after illness, managing a long-term condition, or adapting to disability. It's a distinctive profession because it focuses on what people need and want to do, not just their diagnosis. If you've supported someone facing these challenges, noticed how losing the ability to do ordinary things affects people's confidence and wellbeing, or volunteered in settings where people needed practical support, think about what you observed and what questions it raised. Reading about how OTs work with different groups — from children with developmental needs to older adults adapting their homes — or listening to therapists talk about their work can show you understand what makes this profession different from other healthcare roles. Admissions tutors want to see you grasp the "doing" focus, not just a general interest in helping people.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Year in Health Sciences or Life Sciences

Some universities offer a foundation year if you don't have the required subjects or grades. This adds an extra year but leads directly into the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Health Professions, Science or Social Science)

A well-established route into Occupational Therapy. Make sure your course includes health-related content, and aim for Distinctions in your graded units — Occupational Therapy courses are competitive.

💼 Level 3 Apprenticeships

A Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship carries UCAS tariff points from 2026 and provides relevant clinical experience that can support a university application, particularly when combined with a foundation year.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with an Occupational Therapy degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Health, Illness & How People Are Cared For: This is the core purpose of the degree. You'll learn how to support people to carry out everyday activities after illness or injury, and to live well with long-term disability, learning difficulties, or mental health challenges.

The Mind & Human Behaviour: Mental health is equally weighted with physical health across the degree. You'll study psychology, explore how mental health conditions affect daily life, and learn therapeutic approaches used in mental health settings.

The Human Body & How It Works: Anatomy and physiology provide the foundation. You'll study how body systems function and how physical conditions affect a person's ability to carry out the activities that matter to them.

Learning, Education & Development: Paediatric occupational therapy is a genuine strand. You'll learn how to support children with developmental difficulties, autism, or physical challenges in settings like schools, clinics, and family homes.

Students who thrive in an Occupational Therapy degree are often motivated by

Movement and Physical Activity

You're energised by work where your body is part of what gets the job done. Training and competing, dancing or performing, coaching others through physical activity, the hands-on side of nursing, midwifery, dentistry or veterinary practice, or the operational work of being a paramedic, firefighter or outdoor instructor: the actual job happens through what you do with your body. You'd rather be the one doing the physical work than the one analysing or organising it from a desk.

Building and Sustaining Relationships

You feel energised by work where the people you work with aren't passing strangers but become known to you across years: clients, patients, students, customers. Forming new connections matters, but the deeper energy comes from the slower work of staying present, remembering the small details, picking up where you left off. You come most alive when someone you've known for years is back in front of you, and you take up the conversation as if no time had passed.

Practical Problem-Solving

You're energised by finding fixes to real-life issues, whether they're mechanical, technological, or social. You're motivated by problems you can see, touch, or experience directly, and you get satisfaction from solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. You'd rather build a prototype than write a report about one.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

Helping or Serving Others

You feel driven to support others directly, whether that's providing care, offering help, or doing work that improves the quality of life of people or animals. The satisfaction of knowing your effort made a tangible difference to another living being is what carries you, more than abstract achievement or recognition. You come most alive when the person or animal in front of you is better off because of what you've just done.

What makes Occupational Therapy click for the students who love it?

Occupational therapy is for people who love working out how someone can do the things that matter, whatever stands in the way. The course is endlessly varied, from hospitals to homes to mental health settings, and no two people need the same answer. Much of the satisfaction is creative: adapting a task, rethinking a room, or finding a gadget that turns something impossible into something doable. It is practical and hands-on, and it means getting to know a person and their daily life. Seeing someone get back to cooking, working or dressing themselves is the win they are after.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy finding creative, practical solutions to everyday problems, especially when the obvious answer doesn't work?
Do you find yourself trying to understand how someone else experiences the world, not just what's wrong, but what matters to them?
Do you like the idea of helping people do things for themselves rather than doing things for them?
Do you naturally think about how you come across to others and how your reactions affect the people around you?

Careers an Occupational Therapy degree could lead you to

Occupational Therapy

What do Occupational Therapy degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers an Occupational Therapy degree could lead you to

Example
Modules