Deciding on a career is inevitable and integral to every teenager’s future. Our well-wishers advise us to choose a particular profession or to run away from a particular one. There is the father, who says, “Job well-paid honi chahiyay”.

Then mother says, “Job timings flexible honay chahiyein”. The brother has his own little question, “Job aasani se mil jaey gi?” And then there is the grandmother all worked up about your marital prospects, who says, “Bas education jaldi khatam hojaey, shaadi karni hai!”

Well, isn’t there a profession that gives you the best of everything? Of course there is. Speech Language Therapy, also known as Speech Language Pathology is a four-year degree programme bound to give you the most satisfying and well-paid professional life, in the least amount of time.

Speech Language Pathology is the study of disorders that affect a person’s speech, language, cognition, voice and swallowing (dysphagia). Since these disorders can be congenital or acquired at any point in life, the patient pool is very diverse, including babies, children and adults. Babies may have feeding or swallowing difficulties due to cleft lip/palate, cerebral palsy, etc. Children are diagnosed and treated for misarticulations, language delays and impairments, stammering, autism, and voice disorders. Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) also find themselves working very often with adults, who may come in with speech, language, cognitive and swallowing deficits, most often due to Alzheimer’s disease, stroke or traumatic brain injury.

So, how does a career in Speech Language Pathology give you the best of everything? US News and World Report (2002) lists Speech Language Pathology as one of the “careers to count on” for the future.

A survey conducted to estimate the number of individuals suffering from speech, language, swallowing and/or hearing disorders concluded that for an overall population of more than 160 million Pakistanis, over 22 million children and adults had communicative impediments and/or swallowing disorders.

Therefore to tend to their needs, the country requires some 45,000 SLPs/SLTs. Presently, there are only seven working in the country, all of whom have acquired their qualification from abroad. Opportunities in medically-related areas are also increasing at an above-average rate as more and more individuals are being identified as having speech and language problems. There are more than 1,600 doctors, 800 dentists, 400 pharmacists and 200 physiotherapists graduating every year. But the number of SLPs graduating per year is zero.

Therefore, there is immense job opportunity for individuals graduating in Speech Language Pathology.

Talking about financial stability, the approximate annual salary for fresh graduates is generally around Rs350,000 for the first year after graduation. For MBBS graduates it’s around Rs120,000 and for Pharm D graduates, around Rs150,000. For a SLP, just the starting salary comes to an annual total of Rs500,000. So, answering father’s question, is it financially rewarding.

What about mother’s concern about flexibility? Well, Speech Language Pathology is one of the most flexible careers. There are diverse working environments that you can choose from, including hospitals, mainstream and special schools, university clinics, rehabilitation centres, research facilities and even private practice. Depending on the work setting you choose to work in, you can enjoy the freedom of deciding how many hours you want to work in a week, too.

Being a SLP, you also get the chance to learn from and work as part of a team of professionals treating a client. These include doctors, physiotherapists, teachers, audiologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and caregivers. The field of research is also open. There are endless research opportunities in this field as a four-year Bachelor’s programme has previously not existed in the country.

Oh wait, we almost forgot grandmother and her worries. What about the length of the course? Well, as mentioned earlier, too, in just four years you get a Bachelor’s degree in Science and, considering all the benefits pointed out above, it is the fastest route to a stable and well-rewarding career. The only pre-requisite required is an Intermediate or A’ Level in pre-medical subjects with a minimum of 60 per cent marks. So you can enroll right after college.— Faiza Abdul Wahab