Canada - British Expat Forum

Hi Graeme
I am hoping you can help me. You mentioned in a 2005 post that you had brought physiotherapists into Canada from both UK and South Africa. My daughter wants to study physio and she has to choose to train in UK or SA.
Could you please advise her?
Many thanks for your help.
Zoe

Hi Zoe:
I'm not entirely sure what your question is. Does your daughter intend to move to Canada after she obtains her degree or is she going to work in the country that granted the degree? If her intent is to use the degree to gain entry to Canada then she will need to ensure that the degree granted is equivalent to a Canadian degree. She can check this out by contacting the Canadian Alliance of Physical Therapists who do all the accreditation for Canada and submitting the degree requirements to them.
Overall it's a great profession and well worth doing. The degree system in North America is shifting more into the academic field than the clinical. Currently we grant degrees at the masters level but in many states in the USA the degree is at the doctorate level, this will gradually make its way north to Canada I think. What we might see here is the introduction of a physical therapist technician who does the actual treatment and the doctor of physiotherapy would just do the assessment, diagnosis and plan out the treatment plans etc, probably won't happen in the next five years, but something like that will be coming.
The UK degree seems to have more of a hands-on approach, the South African degree is somewhat similar but isn't as well recognised as the UK degree. If she's doing the UK degree best to go with the honours degree as it is the easiest to upgrade later. Once qualified at the honours level or Masters level she'd be fairly mobile in terms of her worldwide choices for working.
Hardest thing is getting into the school in the first place over here; once in, the study isn't that hard provided you have a background in sciences (Biology and Physics).
Please feel free to ask any further questions, perhaps a bit more specific would be easier for me to answer?
Cheers.
Graeme

Hi Graeme
Many thanks for that great information. Katie is making the decision whether to study in SA or UK, so I wanted to know the implications. Can you tell me which specialisation of physio is most in demand in Canada? Does physio also cover occupational therapy?
Thanks again, Zoe

Most in demand in Canada is the orthopaedic side of things, although stroke and neuro-developmental therapists are in demand too. Physios work closely with Occupational therapists but they are very different positions with a different approach to the client. I'm biased but Physio is more versatile and interesting, OT is more about getting people home and back to work (sort of).
Hope that helps.
Graeme