Education
- Policy and guidance
- Pre-registration programme accreditation
- Developing the occupational therapy profession
- Course endorsement process
Policy and Guidance
The Education Group at COT provides strategic advice and guidance to education providers and other stakeholders. Most of the position statements relating to education are available on the members section of the website. The following guidance documents are also available from the public site:
Guidance on Disability and Learning (70KB 
*)
The aims of this document are to help interpret new disability legislation in respect of duties and responsibilities of education and placement providers, to offer some principles relating to disability and the student journey, and i ndicate ways in which an education and placement provider can make anticipatory and reasonable adjustments for disabled students.
Guidance on Pre-Registration Education: Criminal Records Checks (62KB *)
The COT is determined to strive for the highest standards possible across all areas of the profession and ensure the need to fully safeguard its users. The College is therefore supportive of all necessary checks on students by CRB, Disclosure Scotland and PECS, as these provide wider access to criminal record information and help to identify candidates who may be unsuitable for certain kinds of work.
The guidance on criminal records checks provides information on the different types of UK criminal records checks on students and the responsibilities of the education provider, employer and student for this process.
Developing the occupational therapy profession: providing new work-based learning opportunities for students
The aim of this guidance pack is to encourage the development of new types of practice placements for students which will take place in a setting where an occupational therapist is not traditionally employed.
The guidance gives details for:
- Higher Education Institutions
To help find out more about: developing and run different kinds of practice placement; understanding how to create new placements; undertaking pre-placement preparation and preparing for supervision and assessment - Students
To help find out more about: choosing a different kind of practice placement; pre-placement preparation; supervision and assessment; contribution to future employment - Potential Work Placement Providers
To help find out more about: occupational therapy as a degree programme and a career; offering a practice placement; preparing for the arrival of the student; and how the experience can benefit your organisation
Introduction (29KB *)
Guidance for Placement Providers (61KB *)
Pre-registration Programme Accreditation
The accreditation process is a means by which the College of Occupational Therapists ensures that programmes and graduates of programmes using the title 'occupational therapy' or 'occupational therapist', are educated and practise in a manner that is consistent with the values, beliefs and philosophy of the profession, and by so doing, demonstrate 'fitness for profession'. The College offers all UK education providers of occupational therapy the opportunity to have their qualifying programmes accredited by the College, and through this process, obtain approval by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT).
The Education Officer (Accreditation) manages the accreditation process and annual monitoring of the accredited programmes. Please click on the following link for a copy of the document entitled Accreditation of Pre-registration Programmes in Occupational Therapy (241KB *).
The Education Officer (Accreditation) provides advice to education providers and potential providers on matters relating to the College's requirements. Contact Remy Reyes on 020 7450 2312 or email remy.reyes@cot.co.uk if you require further information.
For a full list of COT accredited and WFOT approved programmes that lead to an occupational therapy qualification please visit the OT as a Career section.
Course endorsement process
The College has recently developed an endorsement process for courses relevant to occupational therapy personnel.
These courses will go through an endorsement process to assess relevance to the profession, currency and content of the course. Courses delivered by independent providers will be additionally assessed for the educational philosophy, teaching and learning strategy and assessment criteria. Course endorsement is for courses which are of educational value.
- Guidance on the development of formal learning opportunities for endorsement by the COT (150KB *)
- Guidance on jointly developing a formal learning opportunity with the COT (98.8KB *)
As part of this process, the College has developed the interactive Learning Opportunities Database (iLOD) for all CPD resources that may be suitable for occupational therapists. Inclusion on the database is an excellent way to advertise a course to over 27,800 members of the College.
- Guidance for including a formal learning opportunity on the learning opportunities database (274KB *)
To have a course included on the database please read through the guidance and then either complete the proforma (111KB 
) or sign up as a provider.
For further information and advice, contact Clair Parkin, Education Officer (QA & Guidance) at Clair.Parkin@cot.co.uk
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