PHYSIOTHERAPY students from York are finally finding jobs in their chosen field - six months after they finished their degrees.

York St John College said a high proportion of its graduates had gained positions, despite national figures which show that 53 per cent of trainees are still hunting work.

The Evening Press reported in September that, out of 26 York graduates, only five had found permanent junior physiotherapy posts.

But Jacqueline Sidney, head of programme for part-time physiotherapy, said 17 had now found jobs, although some had gone into private practice or obtained primary care rather than hospital positions.

"They will still be supervised and gain training but they won't gain the acute experience they would receive in a hospital," she said.

"We don't know how many of the positions are permanent and a couple of graduates are only working as assistants, but at least they are full time posts."

But graduate Nick Johnson, 35, said he thought half his peers were still looking for permanent physiotherapy jobs.

"I know someone who has taken two other jobs because they need to pay the bills," he said. "We had our graduation service last week and about half the people there were still looking for permanent junior posts.

"I have finally managed to gain a junior post, but I have been really lucky. A friend of mine is a nurse at Swansea Hospital and told me something was coming up.

"The job wasn't advertised, and a lot of hospitals are only recruiting from people who applied months ago."

He said Dave Pritchard, 25, who was also featured in the Evening Press, was working as a physiotherapy assistant, a job for which he was overqualified, and Colin Wright, 26, had a different role at Stockton Hospital.

Meanwhile Angela Shepherd, 42, a mum-of-three who gave up a career in nursery education to become a physiotherapist, is working as an assistant while hoping a junior post becomes available in Leeds.

And Kirsteen Young, 23, a Glasgow Caledonian graduate who lives in Long Drax, is covering maternity leave at a physiotherapy department in West Yorkshire.

It costs the taxpayer £28,000 to put each student through their degree, but despite the Government's bid to expand physiotherapy departments, not enough jobs are available in hospitals.

The national survey, carried out by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and involving 70 per cent of this year's graduates, showed that 805 have still not secured their first post.

Chief executive Phil Gray said: "After months of competing with hundreds of others for just a handful of junior posts, many graduates have had to put their physiotherapy aspirations on the backburner.

"We know of first-class graduates who are working in Tesco, Topshop and TSB just to make ends meet. "One's joined the circus, while others are working in factories to raise money for Christmas."

Updated: 09:56 Wednesday, November 30, 2005