Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship

This information specifically relates to the Occupational Therapy Degree Apprenticeship programme. If you are supporting an Occupational Therapy student on the full-time programme please visit our Occupational Therapy information.

As with full time undergraduate students, during their four-year programme our apprentices need to complete 1,000 hours of practice placement outside of their usual place of work and supervised by a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered occupational therapist, the Practice Educator (PE).

UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy apprentices complete three practice placements during their training:

• Nine weeks (autumn term year two)
• Ten weeks (spring term year three)
• 11 weeks (autumn term year four)

View Occupational Therapy placement dates for all cohorts:

Academic year 2023/24

• 18 September 2023 to 17 November 2023
  Cohort 2022A are on Occupational Therapy Practice 1 (OTP1) for 9 weeks.
• 25 September 2023 to 8 December 2023
  Cohort 2020A are on Occupational Therapy Practice 3 (OTP3) for 11 weeks.
• 22 January 2024 to 28 March 2024
  Cohort 2021A are on Occupational Therapy Practice 2 (OTP2) for 10 weeks.

Offering a placement

Our partner employers will be seeking and offering placement opportunities for their apprentices in reciprocal arrangements. Providers and allocations will be quality assured and confirmed by the UWE Bristol Placement Team. If you have any questions or can offer a placement, please contact the Practice Placement Office (PPO) at PPOallocations@uwe.ac.uk.

Key resources

• Recording of PE briefing: All PEs are asked to view this recorded PE briefing before taking a UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Apprentice. You can also view the accompanying slides (PDF).

• We are currently in the process of updating the pre-recorded practice educator briefing, therefore, please note that the contact information for the team, and learning contract format are being revised.

• We are also streamlining the learning contract to demonstrate how each component within the learning contract correlates to the placement competencies. Therefore, we now recommend that each learning need within the contract covers one single placement competency.

For example, placement competency one is:

"Present a professional approach in relation to behaviours such as but not limited to time management, preparation, organisation, personal presentation, communication, reliability, team working and attitude."

Therefore the learning need will be:

"To be able to present a professional approach in relation to behaviours such as but not limited to: time management, preparation, organisation, personal presentation, communication, reliability, team working and attitude."

The apprentices will have taught sessions providing guidance on how to structure their learning contracts. Additionally, the allocated UWE Bristol midway tutor can provide support and guidance.

• Practice Educator question and answer booking form (DOC): After viewing the recorded briefing, PEs are invited to book into the live online PE question and answer with the UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Placement Team before each placement block.
• Nominate an apprentice for the Certificate of Excellence: If you feel your apprentice has excelled in three or more areas of the placement competencies, you can nominate them for a certificate of excellence. This can support their personal profile, and evidence towards their Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours. To nominate your apprentice, complete the nomination form and please give a brief explanation of how the apprentice has excelled during their placement. The deadline to submit your nomination is two weeks after the end of the placement.
• Practice Educator brief guide to the UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Apprentice curriculum 2021 (PDF): Essential information for practice educators.
• Apprenticeship Professional Practice Portfolio (PDF): Detailed information about all aspects of placement.
• Guide to the UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Degree Apprenticeship: Information about the Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship programme.
• Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship placement competencies – all levels (PDF): The learning outcomes students will need to achieve on each placement.
• Placement tutorial support information (PDF): Support available for students and practice educators during placements.
• Failure protocol (PDF): Information about what to do if you have concerns about your student's performance on placement.
• Guidance for PEs supporting students with specific learning differences (PDF): Advice for students and practice educators about managing dyslexia and other specific learning differences (SpLDs) whilst on practice placement.

Useful templates

• Learning contract for curriculum 2021 (DOC)
• Learning contract exemplar – OTP1 (DOC)
• Learning contract exemplar – OTP2 (DOC)
• Learning contract exemplar – OTP3 (DOC)
• Final report template for curriculum 2021 (DOC)
• Placement hours record (DOC)
• Placement supervision preparation and recording pro forma (DOC)

• Visit the BSc(Hons) Occupational Therapy course listing for an overview of the programme and learning outcomes.
• For an outline of the quality assurance apprenticeship placement process providing monitoring and service enhancement on practice placements, download the Apprenticeship Placement Process Document.

If you have any queries or questions about the Occupational Therapy programme or require support, please contact a member of the programme support team.

Programme team

Alice Hortop

• UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship Programme Co-Lead
• Email: Alice.Hortop@uwe.ac.uk
• Tel: +44(0)117 32 88588

Becky Barnes

• UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship Programme Co-Lead
• Email: Becky.Barnes@uwe.ac.uk
• Tel: +44 (0)117 32 81217

Lydia Parfit

• UWE Bristol Occupational Therapy Apprenticeship Placement Co-Lead
• Email: Lydia.Parfit@uwe.ac.uk

Placement team

• Email: ppoallocations@uwe.ac.uk

Find out more about supporting, supervising and assessing students in practice.