A speech pathologist must receive a degree from an accredited university in order to practice.

To be a speech pathologist, you must get a degree from an accredited speech therapy program, preferably in a university or a medical institution which offer courses in speech pathology. Speech pathology courses usually cover topics such as phonetics, acoustics, statistics, voice disorders, speech disorders, stuttering assessment, language disorders, language development, neurology, linguistics, neurophysiology, psychological disorders, non-vocal communication, and so on.

In most American states, a person must have completed a master's degree in speech-language pathology so as to get professional employment in speech pathology. In some states, one is required to take speech pathology courses from colleges that are accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology.

Graduate students who have undergone speech pathology courses are required to also receive supervised clinical training, and to gain employment, one will require a certificate that confirms the clinical experience.

Before taking specialized speech pathology course, you must first complete pre-requisite courses in:

- Biological Science

- Physical Science

- Mathematics

- Behavioral Sciences

- Social Sciences

These courses must be completed before applying for certification in speech-language pathology.

There are also skills requirements, which are usually completed by doing clinical duties through your college or university. There are 400 clinical hours required for you to graduate with a degree in speech pathology. Of these, 25 hours are for observation by the student, and the remaining 375 hours are meant for contact with the patient. Usually, 325 of the clinical hours are done when one is still doing graduate level courses.

Students who wish to apply for certification in speech pathology must complete the Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship (SLPCF) experience. The SLPCF experience is acquired after completing 36 weeks working full time in a clinical practice. After the clinical practice, the Praxis exam in Speech-Language Pathology must be taken. With the Praxis exam taken, it is then up to the individual to comply with the Certification Maintenance requirements that are outlined by the Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship. It is the Certification Maintenance that enables you to practice as a Speech Pathologist.

During training, your interpersonal skills are extremely important, as you will often be communicating with patients who might not be able to communicate coherently and progress may be extremely slow as some patients may have mental conditions underlining their speech impairment. This demands that you should have a lot of patience to deal with the patients. It is also important that you read publications about the field of speech pathology on a regular basis in order to keep touch with the latest developments on the treatment of speech impaired individuals.