Hi,

I did sports science as my first degree, then 3yrs later (I was working in other areas before deciding to apply for physio) I did the MSc (pre-reg) course in Scotland. I finished that in November and was lucky enough to get a permanent job the next month! In fact out of 19 people in my course something like 12 have jobs already (some permananet, some temporary).

Basically no, the SAAS will not fund this course. You need to pay for it yourself I'm afraid, as you've already done a degree you won't get any money for it in terms of another student loan. I ended up paying for mine out of my own pocket as well as taking a loan from the bank, a 'professional skills loan' which basically gives you up to £20k for courses like physio, medicine, law etc. You get 10 yrs to pay it back and you don't start repayments till you graduate. As far as I know Natwest bank and HSBC do these loans, mines a Natwest one. You may also be able to get some money from the 'career development loans' people.

It's not a cheap course to do, and given the current climate for jobs, I'd think hard about getting into even more debt to do it. Saying that though my friends and I have been lucky enough to get work pretty easily so I think the job situation is changing, well in Scotland anyway!

My best advice for getting on the MSc course is to show your commitment to physio- not just in terms of work experience, but by doing other things like sports massage courses, voluntary work in charities etc....the panel will want to see NHS based work experience, and you MUST make sure it's not just sports- in fact I wouldn't tell them if you have a preference for sports physio (if you do) as they tend to reject people on that basis because so many people think that's what physio is about- It's not! It can be the most un-glamourous job (i.e. changing patient's clothing if they have 'accidents', holding the sick bowl when they get sick etc..!), and you need to be aware of this. So try to get work experience in different areas (neuro, respiratory and MSK) so you can talk about that at interview (if you get that far!). As I said, any voluntary work also looks good.

The other thing is don't worry too much about working in relevant areas in your year-off, I worked in Marketing, my friends worked in HR, Research, Retail etc...before applying for and getting into physio, any paid work experience is beneficial as you'll develop communication skills, time management, prioritisation of work, etc, etc....which all looks great on application forms!

Anyway, PM me if you have any more questions! Just be determined, it's hard even getting work experience these days because the demand is so high, so be persistent!