Hello all,
I am a Canadian Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), interested in practicing in Switzerland. I am fluent in English French and Spanish and have some proficiency in German. I was just wondering if anyone might be able to provide me with some insight as to how a Canadian-trained SLP like myself, would find work in Switzerland.
I work primarily with school-aged children, in the areas of articulation disorders, fluency disorders, voice disorders and motor-speech disorders. Additionally, I work with the adult population, both by providing coverage for colleagues at a local hospital, and by making home visits to adult patients with swallowing and communication difficulties in the community.I would be comfortable working in a school setting, a private practice, or some combination of both.
Any advice or information you might be able to provide me regarding requirements for practice, job availability, or other resources would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
I don’t even know if Switzerland has anything equivalent to your area of expertise. However, this website has a PDF file listing the various organisations for people who need to have their qualifications recognised, which is what you’ll need to do before you could work here I think.
http://www.sbfi.admin.ch/diploma/017…x.html?lang=en
Try and work out which organisation comes closest and contact them. If it’s not their area they should be able to point you towards the right one.
If there’s a demand for this sort of service and not many Swiss/EU nationals providing it then you may stand a good chance if you can find an employer who’ll sponsor you for a permit. If there’s a lot of qualified Swiss/EU nationals available though you won’t as they take priority as far as hiring goes.
https://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home…zulassung.html
Since my two sons have been seeing a speech therapiste in Lausanne (logopédiste), you might try
http://www.logoavli.ch/accueil.htm . They might be able to help you, at least in the canton Vaud. There are also a couple of links on that site that might be more useful for you.
They are usually called logopédist or orthophonîst in Switzerland and there is often a very long waiting list to get an appointment so it seems to me they are in relatively short supply.
It would be well worth checking out whether your qualifications are recognised here.
given the amount of private schools, english speaking students and whatnot- i think that once your degree/certification is recognized you could have quite a good amount of work if you network and make the connections. it's not an easy task to find english-based speech therapists and in my experience it is (as said above) a long wait to get an appointment- it may be a very good niche for you! good luck