The OT Around The World program helps occupational therapists from all over the globe work abroad. In this program we’re looking for great OTs to bring together with equally great practices. You are not limited by your nationality or where you currently live & work. With “great OTs” we don’t mean some fancy degree or decades of work experience… we mean just good humans: People that are kind, humble, positive and responsible. That are moved by making a positive difference in someone’s life.
This program is a one of a kind opportunity – no one else takes care of all immigration requirements, finds an apartment for you, provides you with a language course straight to B2 German and gets you hired at a clinic where it’s truly a good fit and where you get an individual development plan that gets you closer to your life and work goals. It’s truly an excellent program with personal attention for every OT – but we can’t do it for everyone.. Like any other relationship or collaboration, both sides have to pitch in to create a good end result. We are here for you to give you a great opportunity, but you have to do your part.
In the following paragraphs, you will find an extensive description of how you can work abroad as an occupational therapist in the OT Around The World program. Afterwards, you will have the option of applying to the program by creating your Candidate Profile. This will take some effort and time. This is good, because it will separate those candidates that aren’t really interested, so that the people that are serious get noticed and have a high chance of a great placement.
On the other side – the clinic side – we also collect as much information as possible to provide you with a realistic impression of what life and work in Germany would be like for you, should you start at this clinic. We collect video, pictures, information about the location, colleagues, work schedule, extra training, what kind of patients are being treated, … even what the weather there is like.
This ensures that there will be a good match between OT and practice with no surprises later on into the employment.
We live in a time where a lot of empty promises are being made and people are growing more and more skeptical of each other. That’s why it’s super important to be honest and communicate clearly. We try our best to do that here.
Most businesses have false beliefs when it comes to their employees: Businesses think they simply create a few bonuses for their employees like “free fruit & coffee in the office” or “you get a free iPad” or “a 200€ Christmas bonus”… and expect employees to be satisfied and do their work over a long time. People are not sheep 🙂 To create a lasting relationship, it has to be beneficial for both sides. People have goals and an idea of what they want to do with their lives. Every clinic in this program will support candidates in a way that brings them closer to their life goals – Some candidates might want to specialize further in a certain area, take on leadership positions, maybe even open their own clinic one day, or start a project to transfer their newly acquired skills back to their home country.
In a nutshell: The expectations and goals of both OT and clinic should be clear. So that a long-term relationship can be built based on this. Good, honest, kind people who are willing to work hard will get good opportunities through this program and will take their career to a higher level.
The Formal Requirements to Apply for This Program Are:
Minimum 6 months work experience as an OT
Be serious about going abroad for 2 years +
Be able to move abroad and start work within 12 months from now
Any area of OT specialization is fine!
Know basic English (or Spanish)
Willingness to learn a new language (level B2 German is required)
Germany has one of the best health care systems in the world and that includes occupational therapy. There currently is a high demand for good OTs. There are many patients on waiting lists. Salaries are about 3.100€ / month, sometimes lower for beginners and higher for more experienced OTs, especially those that take on leadership positions. In private practices, patients of all treatment areas are treated. There is also OT in hospitals and rehab clinics.
You are automatically health insured in Germany through your employment.
In this program, we work with private practices. Maybe hospitals will be possible in the future! If there are many requests, we will certainly try to make this happen! The clinics that we work with are closely vetted and only great clinics are accepted, to form mutually beneficial employment relationships. Practices provide individual career support for OTs, pass on their knowledge and reward good work. OTs support the practice by bringing in ideas, providing feedback, voicing their opinion and taking responsibility. It’s co-creation.
The process is as follows:
Step 1: Create your candidate profile
Step 2: Interview call with us
Step 3: We search for suitable clinics
Step 4: Interview calls with clinic. You will meet a clinic that is interested in hiring you. After 2-3 interview meetings and if it is a good match, you get hired and sign your employment contract with a fixed starting date. If it’s not a fit, we find a different clinic.
Step 5: Preparing your documents for diploma recognition (and immigration, depending on your nationality).
Step 6: You start work in Germany!
How long does it take before I start work in Germany?:
6 months – 12 months
How much does this program cost?:
We help you find a job for free and also manage your recognition, document translation and visa (if needed) process for free. We operate as an extended HR team member of our partner clinics/practices and receive compensation to help them with recruiting. This is how we can provide the program for free for the candidates. We charge only for our language course, “Lingo Interactive”.
What are the benefits of this program?:
Increase your OT skills, learn a new language, live in a new culture, make friends in a different country, earn a good salary, have good job security and future opportunities, be covered by good health care and unemployment insurance, as well as a pension.
Learning a new language scares you?
I had 7 years of French in school.. I failed completely. I don’t remember anything. The traditional way of learning languages is often tedious and takes a long time. According to studies, humans learn much better with a method called “interactive learning” — practicing a lot, making many mistakes, learning from them, while having a little bit of fun. We tested many language courses and none satisfied our requirements fully: They were either too expensive or not effective enough. So, we created our own language course called “Lingo Interactive” — 1:1 guidance through small mini-steps, week-by-week assignments and progress tracking towards your goal of B2. With fun exercises like translating song lyrics, recording movie dialogs, artificial intelligence conversations and pronunciation checks, a German native language partner and practice exams to prepare you — learning German is 100% possible for you, in 180 days. It’s also 60% cheaper than any comparable 1:1 language coaching program. Please ask us for the detailed course description, so you can decide, if you want to choose Lingo Interactive or a course from a different provider.
What is required to get registration / your OT diploma recognized?:
In Germany, this varies from state to state. In most states there is no exam required. Generally, your documents need to be translated into German and sent to the municipal government where your OT experience and education will be compared to the German standard. It helps if you have 2-3 years of experience, this will make it easier to get your recognition. In some cases, the municipal government might decide that you need to do an internship to brush up on certain skills before you’re given your recognition. Should this happen in your case, don’t worry, we help you with this.
Taxes and Housing:
The average OT salary for clinics in our program is 3.100€. It will vary based on experience, role and of course, clinic. This is a gross salary. The net salary will be approximately 2.100€. In Germany, you receive the net salary directly to your bank account. The difference between gross and net salary covers your health insurance, taxes, pension insurance, unemployment insurance, pension insurance.
An apartment in Germany for 1 person will cost about 450€ – 750€ – mainly depending on location and size. A room in a shared flat will be around 300€ – 450€. We will assist you in finding housing.
I’m Julius, currently 29, from Germany. I studied business & engineering and my mom works as an occupational therapist in pediatric care. Some time ago she was struggling to find good OTs for her team in Germany. So we started looking around the world – and we were grateful to find amazing therapists that are a joy to work with. OT as a profession and countries like Germany are a bit behind in building international teams (look into any US or UK tech company – you’ll find a lot of diversity and nationalities working together to achieve a common goal).
I know first hand how exciting it is to live and work in a new culture: I have done extensive traveling and have lived in South-East Asia, as well as Argentina.
I personally think it’s silly to have good people looking for good employers and good employers looking for good people, when they could just be matched up and start working together. Also, a lot of hires turn out to be wrong hires. High staff turnover is one of the worst things that can happen in a business. We are constantly optimizing our process for hiring and I hope that this process will drastically improve the quality in hiring – for the candidate and the employer. I hope that we can match many good people together.
One last note: Please only apply if you are serious. It genuinely makes me happy to help good people in OT get a good opportunity that advances their career. But I hate wasting time on people that are not serious or unprofessional. Therefore, please be professional. For your interview calls: Show up on time, in professional clothes and in a quiet environment with stable internet connection. Please treat my and my team’s time, as well as the resources of this program with respect. I promise you will get the same thing back.
You’ve made it through the intro! Cool! You must have a genuine interest in working abroad. The next step is applying for the program (free) by creating your OT Candidate Profile.
On the basis of this, we will search for suitable clinics for you.
Simply tap the green button below to access it.