Speech therapy / early years teaching

Hello

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. I'm currently a BA English language and linguistics student (on break from studies). I don't know if I want to study speech therapy or early years (kind of confused about the different routes and teaching qualifications as well).

From the following listed interests and my weighing up of what I like and what's putting me off, maybe could someone try to advise me?

I'm interested in:
Working with children from infancy to 7 years old
Communication difficulties in children
SEND
Arts and crafts (could probably be used in both)

I think that with speech therapy I may have more work opportunities, as where I live it's difficult to get a teaching job and speech therapists are moreso in demand. However, I feel kind of put-off with speech therapy (2 year msc) because of tuition fees and working with adults. I know that the NHS gives £5k to approved HCPC & RCSLT speech therapy courses, but I can't afford it plus the accomodation fees.

I also wanted to go for the EYTS fully funded by DfE but I've heard that it's not an accepted qualification in state schools. And that some people on here had moved onto PGCE / QTS to teach older children in primary school.

Does anyone know of any work experience or volunteering opportunities available in the Teesside area that would be relevant in the field of speech therapy or teaching children?

I have contacted schools and care homes so far

If you do a pre-registration masters for SaLT, you would be eligible for undergraduate funding (ie both tuition fee and maintenance loans) as it an exception course. You would also be eligible for the NHS LSF on top of that (if you study at a uni in England).

Contact the SaLT department at your local hospital/NHS trust and ask for some shadowing experience so that you can decide if it is the career for you.