Continuing Education: Good for You and Good for Your Career

The growth and strength of the OT profession is heavily dependent upon having an educated and skilled workforce. Just think of how much of our daily work now requires us to use computer technology. This requires continuous, usually incremental, learning yet using this knowledge of technology merely supports an OT or COTA’s daily work – the more significant learning occurs by staying up-to-date on best practice models and delivering effective and efficient clinical care.

Let’s face it: to be an occupational therapist or certified occupational therapy assistant, you have to like going to school and learning. To work in the OT field, a person must either graduate from an accredited two year program to become a COTA or obtain a graduate degree to become an OTR. While some may lament the continuous need to acquire CEUs and the cost associated with that, most OTR's and COTA's acknowledge the fundamental value of continuing professional education because of its obvious value to patients. Of course, it is of great value to the clinician too: it keeps them up-to-date on clinical and professional issues and provides intellectual stimulation and professional enrichment. Continuing education can encompass far more than CEU acquisition, however, and there have never been so many ways to obtain additional skills and education.

Continuing education can provide OTR's and COTA's with the credentials they need to advance in their careers, maintain their state license and NBCOT certification, and prove that they are qualified to provide the services they offer to clients. OTR's and COTA's have a number of options when seeking profession-related education including OT conferences, courses at local colleges and universities, and distance education (online) courses. Continuing education doesn’t stop at profession-related subject matter however.

Leadership, management, accounting, negotiation skills, small business management, recruiting, marketing, sales, and business writing courses provide valuable information for OTR's and COTA's who wish to start their own businesses, advance to management roles within a larger company, or branch out into business roles in health care or in other sectors. The beauty of continuing education courses is that there are so many available that it’s easy to find one that meets the working professional’s scheduling constraints, budget, interests and needs. Course delivery can be in an actual classroom setting in a building, in a virtual classroom online, self-paced online, self-paced at home with support online or by phone, or a combination of these. Consumers of continuing education usually know precisely what they want to learn, how it relates to their present work, and how they will apply it in their careers. Courses are usually taught by instructors who have significant industry or hands-on professional experience, and who understand the real-world environments in which learners wish to apply their new knowledge.

No article on the subject of continuing education would be complete without noting that continuing education on any subject of interest will be personally enriching even if it has no direct benefit to one’s career. It’s important to also pursue interests that don’t directly pertain to work, since we are each much more than just the profession that we practice.

If a career change, job change, or career advancement is on your horizon, give some thought to what you need to know to get to where you want to be, and then check out our online continuing education resources.  Enjoy!