Creating Your Own Career Path

Many people wish to have a healthy body, and a balanced diet is a crucial part of it. Each individual’s health condition is different. What is the best dietary plan for you? A dietitian should have an answer!

Dietitians would tailor-make dietary plans based on individual health conditions and dietary habits. They will also help clients understand the nutritional value of different food, so as to enable them to sustain their healthy dietary habits in the long run. Dietitians indeed provide nutrition and dietetic services in various sectors. Some dietitians specialise in providing clinical services to patients with chronic diseases, such as formulating a “3 Low, 1 High” dietary plan for diabetic patients, so that the intake of carbohydrates at each meal could be quantified. This would help stabilise patients’ blood glucose level, thus managing their medical conditions more effectively. In conjunction with doctor’s medical treatment, dietitians always play an important role to further improve patients’ health conditions through daily nutrition plans.

Apart from dietitians, many organisations nowadays create assistant job positions related to nutrition and diet, such as nutrition therapist assistants. They usually help measure clients’ heights and weights; provide assistance to dietitians in designing meal plans and introduce these plans to the clients based on their healthy goals, including weight loss, fat loss or muscle strengthening, etc. Hence, nutrition therapist assistants also need to acquire basic knowledge in nutrition, such as how to calculate calories and how to ensure food safety.

Career Path Planning - Dietitian and Nutrition Consultant Assistants

If you are interested in healthy dietary habits and enjoy interacting with others, you may consider turning your personal interest into a career by becoming a dietitian or nutrition therapist assistant!

To become a dietitian, you need to obtain a relevant bachelor’s degree first. Since Hong Kong has no statutory registration system for dietitians, you may first need to study a registered dietitian courses in local or overseas institutions. After completing clinical practicum and passing the professional examination, you will be registered as a foreign registered dietitian. You might wish to become an accredited dietitian in Hong Kong by applying to the Hong Kong Academy of Accredited Dietitians, an accredited healthcare professional body under the Department of Health's Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions.

For nutrition therapist assistant, the required academic qualification is relatively lower than dietitian given its assistant role.  However, nutrition therapist assistants also need to receive specialised training and there are many certificate courses available in the market offering the required knowledge and skills. In-service nutrition therapist assistants may also further their studies to pave the way to become dietitians one day! If you are interested in pursuing careers in food-and-nutrition-related fields, do check out the following course information to know more!

 Courses from Talent.gov.hk related to Nutrition

*Source: Talent.gov.hk

Other Useful Links

• Related career information on Talents.gov.hk

• Related career information on the Life Planning Information website of the Education Bureau

• Related course information on the Diploma of Applied Education website of the Education Bureau (Chinese only)

• Search for more related programmes in the Qualifications Register