Occupation
Physiotherapy assistant
Physiotherapy assistants deliver treatment programmes designed by a physiotherapist and support patients through the repetitive work of rehabilitation. They spend more contact time with patients than the therapist does, which makes their observations clinically useful. The role is physical: supporting transfers, demonstrating exercises, and setting up equipment.
Also known as: Physical therapist assistant · Rehabilitation assistant · Physiotherapy support worker
Occupation content
Part of Healthcare and clinical services
What the work involves
- Take patients through prescribed exercise programmes and correct technique as they go.
- Set up and apply modalities and equipment as directed by the supervising therapist.
- Support safe transfers, walking practice, and mobility aid use.
- Record attendance, repetitions achieved, and how the patient responded.
- Report pain, reluctance, or lack of progress back to the physiotherapist.
- Clean and maintain gym and treatment equipment between sessions.
How people commonly enter
- A physiotherapist assistant or rehabilitation assistant diploma at a college.
- A combined therapist-assistant programme covering physiotherapy and occupational therapy support.
- An employer-based support-worker route with structured on-the-job training.
Typical training: Certificate or college diploma
Licensing: Regulated in some jurisdictions — confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.
Typical work context
Team based · Public facing · Physically active · Predictable routine · Varied work
Related interests
Social (helping) · Realistic (hands-on)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Healthcare and clinical services.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — Physical Therapist Assistants (31-2021.00) · United States
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- UK National Careers Service — Physiotherapy assistant · United Kingdom
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- Canada Job Bank — Explore an occupation (search: physiotherapy assistant) · Canada
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Healthcare and clinical services in Canada, not a figure for Physiotherapy assistant. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Healthcare and clinical services family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Healthcare and clinical services: education pathways
Some roles in Healthcare and clinical services may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Healthcare and clinical services: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Physiotherapy assistant”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)