Practice Education
Practice education placements form a key component of each of the programmes in the School of Allied Health and are a collaboration between the student, the practice placement educator and the University.
Practice education provides learning opportunities that allow students to experience work as a developing practitioner. Students learn through supervised practice, reflection and enquiry that enables development of therapeutic, personal management, communication and reasoning skills.
The profile of practice education placement is monitored to enable students to develop skills within varied health and social care setting with a range of different client groups.
The practice education team is responsible for the organisation and management of practice education placements, working with both students and educators to optimise the learning experience for all. Practice education placements are distributed throughout each year of the programme with each programme having specific requirements in line with CORU, the registration body.
If you are a practice educator and interested in offering a student placement, please contact the Senior Administrator practice.education@ul.ie
SAH Health Screening and Immunisation
All healthcare professionals, including students in the School of Allied Health, have a duty to protect themselves and their patients/clients from disease and to be fit to attend the placement education components of their programme. As a consequence, the School of Allied Health (SAH) requires all students on its qualifying programmes1 to have proof of the required vaccinations and a health screen by an Occupational Health provider in advance of their first placement. Failure to attend or comply
with the pre-placement health screen and vaccination check will result in students not being able to attend placement and thus delay or prevent completion of the programme.
SAH Health Screening and Immunisation Protocol 2025-2026
Practice Education Training
Occupational Therapy
Details on the following can be found in the below link:
- Practice Education training 2026-2027
- Practice Education Placement dates 2026-2027
- Pre-Placement Briefings
- OTPEN Practice Education Series – 2026–2027
- Practice Education Coordinator Contacts
- University Placement Resources
- AOTI conference 2026
Occupational Therapy Practice Education Training 2026-2027
National Interprofessional Practice Educator Development and CPD
When considering your CPD please see the attached National Interprofessional Practice Educator Development CPD Tool. This framework can help practice educators to reflect on their own learning needs, map out CPD activities and identify areas for further professional development.
Please see Section 5: Practice Educator Professional Development, pages 48 to 53, which may be particularly useful when planning your CPD in practice education.
