Diploma in Occupational Therapist Assistant / Physiotherapy Assistant is a diploma in Physiotherapy programme taught at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. The programme runs for 2 years, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English.
At a glance
Degree:Diploma
Field:Physiotherapy
Duration: 2 years
Delivery: On Campus
Language: English
We have no tuition fees on record for this programme yet — see the official programme page.
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Last reviewed September 2026 ·
Program details
Overview
Overview Choose a career in promoting health, restoring function and improving quality of life. The two-year Occupational Therapist Assistant Physiotherapist Assistant Ontario College Diploma program equips you with the knowledge and skills to work alongside an Occupational Therapist and/or Physiotherapist with the goal of helping individuals to overcome movement limitations and perform their daily activities with independence. Occupational Therapist Assistants and Physiotherapist Assistants play vital supporting roles in the assessment, planning and implementation of therapeutic care across a variety of healthcare environments. The versatile set of skills, learned and applied throughout the program, are becoming increasingly valuable as the demand for both healthcare and rehabilitation services continue to grow. Through classroom theory, group activities, practical labs, and clinical experience, you prepare to work with individuals of all ages, who are coping with health limitations. A key component of the program is the real-world exposure gained with the more than 500 hours of clinical placement. An assortment of clinical experiences, strategically integrated into the curriculum, provide you with opportunities for hands-on learning to strengthen your clinical skills and foster professional growth. Graduates of this dual-trained program have the ability to support the delivery of both occupational therapy and physiotherapy services wherever they are offered. A graduate may find employment in the following environments: hospitals rehabilitation centers private clinics home care schools assisted-living facilities long-term care
Requirements
Admission Requirements: Algonquin publishes these requirements for the Sept 2027 - Aug 2028 admissions year on this program's own page; the requirements for Sept 2026 - Aug 2027 are shown separately there and can differ. Program code 1623X01FWO. All applicants must satisfy both College Eligibility and Program Eligibility.
COLLEGE ELIGIBILITY: an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or its equivalent, or mature-student standing - 19 or older, and without a high-school diploma, by the time the program begins. Mature entry may be settled by academic achievement testing, for which a fee is charged.
PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY: Grade 12 English (ENG4C or equivalent); Grade 11 Mathematics (MBF3C or equivalent); Biology at Grade 11 or 12. No minimum grades are published for these subjects.
Every applicant must also sit the Algonquin College Health Program Admissions Test (AC-HPAT) at the Test Centre and pay an exam fee. The result is used both to set minimum eligibility and to rank applicants, and it may be written only once per academic cycle.
Applicants presenting transcripts from outside Canada must document the subjects above and may be asked for evidence of language proficiency; a domestic applicant holding international transcripts must have them assessed by the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS) or World Education Services (WES).
ENGLISH: Academic IELTS 6.0 overall with nothing under 5.5 in any band; or TOEFL iBT 80 overall with 20 in each of reading, listening, speaking and writing where the test was sat before 21 January 2026, or 4 overall with 4 in each section where it was sat after that date; or a Duolingo English Test score of 110 overall with 110 in Literacy and 95 in Production.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS: those who meet the program eligibility are additionally required to complete a four-month preparatory course, Introduction to Canadian Health Studies (ICHS), and move into this program afterwards; entry to ICHS requires an academic IELTS score.
AFTER ACCEPTANCE: field placements run in both years of the program. A current Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector must reach the College by the department's deadline, at the student's cost; late or unclear documentation can prevent placement, and a student who cannot be placed cannot graduate and will be asked to withdraw. To be eligible for placement you must supply Standard First Aid certification, CPR Level C and the vulnerable-sector check, and complete immunisations through ParaMed, the third-party provider that collects placement documentation for the School of Health and Community Studies, paying the associated costs. Hospital, field and outreach placements also require health and safety, N95 mask fit, WHMIS and occupational health and safety training, which tuition does not cover. Students may have to travel outside their home area at their own cost, and evening or weekend labs are possible.
Application Details
Start Date:Intake terms Algonquin lists for this program, read from its own availability table on 6 September 2026: Fall 2026 (AC Day 1 orientation 8 September 2026; Fall term classes start 9 September 2026). Term start dates come from the Registrar's Important Dates page, which also gives 11 January 2027 for the Winter 2027 term and 10 May 2027 for the Spring 2027 term. Availability changes as seats fill and an intake already under way may be closed, so check the program page before applying. Algonquin's academic year runs September to August.
Application Deadline:DOMESTIC APPLICANTS (Canadian citizens and permanent residents). Algonquin publishes no deadline unique to this program; the dates below are the college-wide Ontario colleges cycle and apply to every full-time day program. Applications go through ontariocolleges.ca, where 1 February is the equal consideration date each cycle: apply by then and your application is assessed alongside every other one received by that date, while applications arriving later are handled first-come, first-served for as long as places remain. For entry in Fall 2027 the ontariocolleges.ca application opened on 26 September 2026, colleges may begin issuing offers on 1 November 2026, the equal consideration date is 1 February 2027 and an offer must be accepted by 1 May 2027. The equal consideration date that governed the Fall 2026, Winter 2027 and Spring 2027 intakes was 1 February 2026 and has already passed, so those three starts are now first-come, first-served while seats last. This program also requires the Algonquin College Health Program Admissions Test (AC-HPAT); Algonquin asks for the assessment to be completed by 12 February to be included in the ranking.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS. Apply directly to Algonquin on the International Application Form in its International Application Portal (AC360) rather than through ontariocolleges.ca, with a CAD 135 application fee. There is no single fixed international deadline: Algonquin asks you to confirm the program is open before applying, warns that a program's status can change to waitlisted or closed before an admissions officer reviews the file, and publishes a closing-date sheet for each intake. For the Fall 2026 intake that sheet gives this program's own dates: 16 September 2026 is the last day to apply on the International Application Portal and receive an acceptance, and 21 September 2026 is the last day to register.
