The National Qualification in Neuromuscular and Physical Therapy

skipper756

Hi All,

Does anyone know anything about The National Qualification in Neuromuscular and Physical Therapy Course run by the NTC?
Is it a recognised qualification and is there work to be had at the end of it?

DMG1983

Hey I've just finished this course-I did the weekend course which is one weekend per month for 15 months. If you want a career change you would need to be willing to do other courses as well like taping and strapping (if you want to work with a team) and FSM or dry needling, I wouldn't feel confident to start my own practice now maybe after I have a bit more experience I'll consider it. It is quite expensive and you have to do exams half way through (you get a cert in sports massage) and at the end, you also have to do tasks throughout. I didn't really do as much work as I should have during the course so I didn't enjoy it as much as i could have if I had of known the muscles better. About 12 people dropped out of my class (32 started) so it is tough but after investing the money I wanted to finish it. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask:D

skipper756

Thanks for the response! Do you feel that it is possible to go to work for yourself with this qualification alone or would there be no demand?
Do you feel the course is value for money?

Cheers

DMG1983

I think it is quite expensive I paid €800 deposit and €310 for 8 months. To be honest if the deposit wasn't as expensive I think I would have left after the 1st month! I decided last minute to do it so I don't know if other courses are cheaper but the course is widely recognised so you are not restricted to practising in Ireland when you are done.
I wouldn't open my own clinic now as I said partly due to lack of experience but also I have a good job and I travel a lot so I couldn't even do it part time.
I do treatments for my friends and family and I am well able to help them with injuries so if I ever wanted a career change I think I would open my own place.
I would advise you to get involved in a team if you can as it would be good for your practice treatments (you have to do 50) and then you can charge them when you are qualified!!
It depends on where you live as well if there are a lot of sports therapists etc. in your area then you might not be as busy but if you got involved with a club and offered extras like FSM (you would have to do an add on course which is about 1k) you could do well.
Some health insurance companies pay out for treatments so that's a good incentive for clients to choose you over someone else. You will need to buy extra books (they tell you that you don't need any but the one they give you but then they recommend about 5 every class!) and you will need to buy a treatment bed so you can do your practice treatments.

skipper756

Thanks a lot for the info. I am in Mayo and there are not too many Sports Therapists in my area. I also work in a leisure centre so there may be an opportunity there to pick up a few clients. Cheers for all the help to date and the very best of luck with it!

DMG1983

ah that's great you should definately do it then your in a good position to earn money!! Best of luck if you decide to do it!!

kob29

If you take the course seriously then it's worth doing, but you have to be willing to do self-employment because you wont find a clinic hiring 99% of the time for this. It takes time too to build up a client base, years usually. Be aware also, working in a leisure centre may give you a bit of a client base but if you're to attach yourself to a team like a club gaa/soccer/rugby team working in a leisure centre is hard to make training/matches with the kind of frequency they'd want you.

Thepoet85

Hey folks,

Thought I'd pop in with my two cents. I finished the course in Dec '10 and got my qualifications in Feb '11. I thought long and hard about starting a business in my local town in Donegal and finally decided to give it a shot. Started officially in Oct '11.

After being self employed for that length of time I am glad that I decided to do it. Bu be under no illusion, it is very difficult at times. I had little to no clients starting out except family and friends. Thankfully I am now getting a lot more clients, but this is due to the free hours I have been working with local sports teams, plenty of advertising, and thankfully, good word of mouth.

Saying that, I have very busy weeks and quiet ones, but in this day and age I knew I wasn't going to get offered a job elsewhere so I decided to create one myself.

I am glad I did, but think long and hard about something like this. It's worth doing, but you only get out of it what you put in.

If you have any questions dont hesitate to conact me :-)

OR2014

Thepoet85 wrote: »

Hey folks,

Thought I'd pop in with my two cents. I finished the course in Dec '10 and got my qualifications in Feb '11. I thought long and hard about starting a business in my local town in Donegal and finally decided to give it a shot. Started officially in Oct '11.

After being self employed for that length of time I am glad that I decided to do it. Bu be under no illusion, it is very difficult at times. I had little to no clients starting out except family and friends. Thankfully I am now getting a lot more clients, but this is due to the free hours I have been working with local sports teams, plenty of advertising, and thankfully, good word of mouth.

Saying that, I have very busy weeks and quiet ones, but in this day and age I knew I wasn't going to get offered a job elsewhere so I decided to create one myself.

I am glad I did, but think long and hard about something like this. It's worth doing, but you only get out of it what you put in.

If you have any questions dont hesitate to conact me :-)

Hi Thepoet85,
I'm messaging you in relation to The National Qualification in Neuromuscular and Physical Therapy Course run by the NTC? I seen you comment on a forum and I have a few questions for you, hopefully you can help.
I am 18 and doing my leaving certificate and for my CAO application I wanted to pick physio therapy but I soon found it out of my reach because of such high points required.. when I found out I more than likely wasn't capable of getting these points I was annoyed and for a long period of time after I went through course and course and was still very indecisive of what i wanted to do until today when i came across this 15 month course that you do not need any leaving cert to do. Do you think it would this course would be suited to an 18 year old? and is it tough ?. I am happy I found it but don't want to jump straight into things, so I am messaging you for you're opinion, someone who has completed this course and is now successfully set up working as a physical therapist.. I am also going to consult a local physical therapist ... hope you get the chance to reply,
Thanks,
From a Stressed out leaving cert student!

nibtrix

OR2014 wrote: »

Hi Thepoet85,
I'm messaging you in relation to The National Qualification in Neuromuscular and Physical Therapy Course run by the NTC? I seen you comment on a forum and I have a few questions for you, hopefully you can help.
I am 18 and doing my leaving certificate and for my CAO application I wanted to pick physio therapy but I soon found it out of my reach because of such high points required.. when I found out I more than likely wasn't capable of getting these points I was annoyed and for a long period of time after I went through course and course and was still very indecisive of what i wanted to do until today when i came across this 14 week course that you do not need any leaving cert to do. Do you think it would this course would be suited to an 18 year old? and is it tough ?. I am happy I found it but don't want to jump straight into things, so I am messaging you for you're opinion, someone who has completed this course and is now successfully set up working as a physical therapist.. I am also going to consult a local physical therapist ... hope you get the chance to reply,
Thanks,
From a Stressed out leaving cert student!

Not sure if you meant to private message Thepoet but I'd thought I'd stick my 2 cents in. I applied for the sports massage course in the NTC when I was 18. They told me that they preferred not to take people that young. About 2 years later I got a letter inviting me to apply, which I did and finished the course with no issues. I don't know why they weren't keen on 18-year olds but the course did have an older age profile all right. This was more than 10 years ago so things may be different now. Your best bet is probably to contact them!

nibtrix

Also meant to say, when I applied they asked me to come in for a meeting to talk about the course and see would it be suitable. If they don't still do that then ask can you come in to see the place, or maybe to audit a class that is on (sit at the back and listen in).

OR2014

nibtrix wrote: »

Also meant to say, when I applied they asked me to come in for a meeting to talk about the course and see would it be suitable. If they don't still do that then ask can you come in to see the place, or maybe to audit a class that is on (sit at the back and listen in).

Thanks for your comment! .. I am going to contact them tomorrow ... Is there any particular course that you would recommend to start with? eg
(neuromuscular , Sports massage) etc .. Thanks.

OR2014

nibtrix wrote: »

Also meant to say, when I applied they asked me to come in for a meeting to talk about the course and see would it be suitable. If they don't still do that then ask can you come in to see the place, or maybe to audit a class that is on (sit at the back and listen in).

Also i forgot to ask, how are you getting on now? do you find that the course has benefited you? and have you done any other courses? eg (dry needling, Deep tissue massage) or any other? .. I inquired today, so I got loads of info!! is there any preparation for the course i could do just to be ahead of the game for when it starts .. thanks so much for your'e help!!

nibtrix

OR2014 wrote: »

Also i forgot to ask, how are you getting on now? do you find that the course has benefited you? and have you done any other courses? eg (dry needling, Deep tissue massage) or any other? .. I inquired today, so I got loads of info!! is there any preparation for the course i could do just to be ahead of the game for when it starts .. thanks so much for your'e help!!

I don't work in that area at all, never did after the course. Life just went another way!

I think it's an excellent course overall, but it's one where you really get out what you put in to it. The more you interact and ask questions the better you'll do.

In terms of preparation, how's your anatomy and physiology background? Did you do biology in school? There is a lot of information to learn off - quite detailed parts of individual bones and muscles. If you could name all the bones and most of the major muscles before you started that would give you a huge advantage - there'll still be a lot to learn but having the basics down would be a good head start and would hopefully prevent you from becoming overwhelmed when they start throwing a lot of technical info at you.

Once you start the course get as much practice in as possible. There'll always be people willing to volunteer for a free massage, although once they realise that it's sports massage including a lot of active movement and not the relaxing spa-type massage they're expecting they may not come back a second time!

Last tip - cut your fingernails really short before you go in the first time! I remember when I went in for the interview the guy grabbed my hands to study my fingernails, which was rather embarrasing as I'd come straight from work and they weren't particularly clean! :o

OR2014

nibtrix wrote: »

I don't work in that area at all, never did after the course. Life just went another way!

I think it's an excellent course overall, but it's one where you really get out what you put in to it. The more you interact and ask questions the better you'll do.

In terms of preparation, how's your anatomy and physiology background? Did you do biology in school? There is a lot of information to learn off - quite detailed parts of individual bones and muscles. If you could name all the bones and most of the major muscles before you started that would give you a huge advantage - there'll still be a lot to learn but having the basics down would be a good head start and would hopefully prevent you from becoming overwhelmed when they start throwing a lot of technical info at you.

Once you start the course get as much practice in as possible. There'll always be people willing to volunteer for a free massage, although once they realise that it's sports massage including a lot of active movement and not the relaxing spa-type massage they're expecting they may not come back a second time!

Last tip - cut your fingernails really short before you go in the first time! I remember when I went in for the interview the guy grabbed my hands to study my fingernails, which was rather embarrasing as I'd come straight from work and they weren't particularly clean! :o

yeah I'm doing biology at school at the moment, I was thinking of going over that and having it known well alright! ... interveiw? i havent heard of this yet? when does this take place... after you apply possibly?

nibtrix

OR2014 wrote: »

yeah I'm doing biology at school at the moment, I was thinking of going over that and having it known well alright! ... interveiw? i havent heard of this yet? when does this take place... after you apply possibly?

It wasn't really an "interview". When I applied they asked me to come in for a chat to see if the course suited me and I suited them. I thought it was good actually, rather than just taking my money and possibly having me drop out of the course, they took the time to give me all the information possible.

This was ten years ago, the NTC is much bigger now so they may do things completely differently.

andy1443

Hi skipper756,

Glad I happened across this thread. Hopefully I'll be able to give you some useful info. First off I've completed the Cert course in Neuromuscular Therapy in 2012. Prior to this I earned an Hons BSc in Sport & Exercise Science in UL and as we speak Im taking part in the Higher Diploma in Neuromuscular Therapy offered by the NTC so I'm fairly familiar with the college

The Cert course is a great first step, i was lucky that I had a strong background in physiology and anatomy going in as the content is tough but the program and tutors are there to facilitate those with little to no background in the area. While coming out with the cert allows you to register with the ANMPT and set up your own practice that may be a bit daunting at your age.

Currently in Ireland everything outside of Chartered Physiotherapy is considered a complementary therapy rather than primary care. This means that you will be unable to work with the HSE and would find it difficult to gain work in many clinics although its not impossible. There is an ongoing battle over the use of the title "physical therapist" as the name refers to physios in a number of countries. Physiotherapy is a very different career path in terms of how you will treat patients and the types of patients you will treat.
If you have fully researched the physio side of things and want to go that way it is not blocked out simply because you dont have enough points. If you are willing to go a longer route you can do Pre Reg Physiotherapy (Msc) in a number of Universities in the UK after completing a related science degree here in Ireland, e.g. sports science, health science, nursing to name but a few all of which have more achievable points than a straight physiotherapy course.

Physical Therapy is a great career and I'm delighted I went for the higher diploma route instead of going the Masters in Physio but if I was advising a friend at your age about doing the course I would be worried about facing self employment by the age of 19!

sorry this was a bit of a rant, first post on this. Any questions just ask away!

Andy

amd82

andy1443 wrote: »

Hi skipper756,

Glad I happened across this thread. Hopefully I'll be able to give you some useful info. First off I've completed the Cert course in Neuromuscular Therapy in 2012. Prior to this I earned an Hons BSc in Sport & Exercise Science in UL and as we speak Im taking part in the Higher Diploma in Neuromuscular Therapy offered by the NTC so I'm fairly familiar with the

Andy

Heya Andy,

Came across this post as I'm looking at physical therapy courses and interested in NTC 15 month weekend course, just have a few questions if you wouldn't mind answering?

The course is called Neuromuscular Physical Therapy - is this just a certain area of physical therapy? Can you call yourself a physical therapist at end of it?

Also does this course lead into the Higher Diploma that you're taking at the moment?

Have also looked at the 3 year degree course offered by IPTAS. Did you consider this one at all? What is attractive about it is the degree level qual and the fact that can join IPTA which is recognised by all health insurers. Financially it is not so attractive! It's also a huge time commitment. Which is what brought me to look at NTC course. My aim in doing it would be to set up a practice at home on a part time basis to supplement my salary as a teacher. Do you think the NTC course would set me up well for this? Am prepared to put in the hard graft!

Any help appreciated

oliviareilly

Hey everyone im considering this 15 month course with NTC in the coming months. Ive seen a bad review about it on this so im a little cautious just wondering does anyone know how good the course is run now? i done a sports massage course 2 years ago and it was run very badly we didnt learn much and the tutor was terrible. as you can imagine i dont want to make the same mistake again, i definitely cant afford too anyways. i really appreciate all opinions

King Cantona

bump & would also be interested in this as I'm considering changing careers to pursue this.

CoolGuy2000

Found this thread on google and it is applicable to me.

Though - there is another qualification through IIPT in cork which seems more comprehensive - but is about double the cost.

Can anyone comment on either course - NMT or the aforementioned?