“From the first year to the last, the degree offers fundamental knowledge: from an anatomy basis, neurology knowledge, and language development in different disorders or pathologies; to the intervention in different areas, as speech, voice, audition or brain damage, for example. Here you realise how much speed therapy can cover and how many people we can help”, she explains and acknowledge that the degree is “vocational” so she recommends studying it “if you really have passion for it”.

Professional retraining and continuous training are other characteristics that Mar i Cel highlights about this studies, as well as the team work with other speech therapy professionals in coordination with different specialist physicians.

Mar i Cel remembers that when she finished her career she started to work in the same place where she made her internship, and two years later she opened her own Speech Therapy Centre in Paiporta (València).

Her experience illustrates the analysis of employability of the degree in Speech Therapy, carried out by UVocupació in the Third Study of Employability of Degrees of the Universitat de València (2019), which highlights several aspects.

On one side, compared to de second study (2017) the employment rate of the graduates in Speech Therapy had a increase of over 10 points, from 84.2% to 94.4%, thus surpassing the psychological barrier of 90%. Related to this datum, the percentage of graduates who found a job within the six months after graduation had a increase of 11 points between 2017 with 68.6%, and 2019 with 79.6%.

On the other side, the adjustment of the last or current employment of the graduates in Speech Therapy to their level of studies and degree stands at 77.8%, almost 20 points higher than the value for the University, which is 58.5%. About this datum, the UVocupació Field of Studies explains: “The difference is quite significant between graduates one year after finishing their studies and graduates two years after: at one year the adjustment is 52.6%, and at two is 91.4%, i.e. almost 40 points higher. This means that two years after finishing the career, most of the graduates are in job that matches their degree and requires university education”.

These figures describe quality career opportunities in the case of Speech Therapy Studies. In addition there is another interesting fact: the percentage of self-employed people, which is 25.5%, placing this degree in fifth position with the highest percentage of self-employed people.

Other quality factors

Speech Therapy studies are also distinguished by the fact that 71.8% of their graduates work as employees in technical positions or with dependents. In addition, 41% of them have a stable contract (the overall value of the UV is 30.1%).

Finally, the UVocupació study shows that “almost all the graduates are working as speech therapists”, with health and social care being the most common sectors in which graduates develop their profession, but also in education and research.