Become A Vet's Assistant

You would normally train to become a vet’s assistant (often referred to as a ‘veterinary nurse’) either through higher education or via work-based vocational training. Whichever route you decide to take, it will lead you to obtaining your registration as a veterinary nurse through the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).

The Work-Based Training Route

In order to qualify as a veterinary nurse through work-based training, you must be aged 17 or over and be employed by a RCVS approved veterinary practice. To gain employment in a vet’s practice, you should have obtained 5 GCSEs at grade C or above which must include Maths, English and at least two science-related subjects. If you do not have the relevant GCSE qualifications, you can also find work if you have successfully completed the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) Animal Nursing Assistant qualification. Alternatively, the City and Guilds/NPTC National Certificate for Veterinary Care Assistants is a recognised equivalent qualification.

When applying for jobs, it often helps if you’ve worked with animals previously in either some kind of paid or voluntary capacity. Helping out at your local kennels, the RSPCA or an animal or pet rescue centre will be highly advantageous in your search for work. Once you have found a job within a veterinary practice, you’d combine on the job experience and training with either day or block release study at college and it would take a minimum of 2 years, with exams at the end of each year, to obtain both NVQ levels 2 and 3 in Veterinary Nursing as well as the RCVS Certificate in Veterinary Nursing Theory.

In some areas, you may even be able to enter the profession via an Apprenticeship route. For more details on that you should take a look at the Apprenticeships website. Another useful website is LANTRA which is the National Training Organisation for Land Based Industries.

The Higher Education Route

As an alternative to the above, you may decide to enter the veterinary profession by doing an RCVS-approved veterinary nursing degree or a BTEC, HND course. If you go down this route, you’ll still have the opportunity to combine your academic studies with some RCVS-approved work placement training. You’d still be required to have a minimum of 5 GCSEs at grade C or above, including Maths, English and two science subjects along with at least 2 A levels (or their equivalent) which would preferably be in biology and chemistry. The RCVS website is a good resource to identify the universities and colleges that offer these courses and what each of their individual entry requirements is.

Entering the veterinary profession via higher education does inevitably take longer than by going down the work-based training route. However, on the plus side, your career options further down the track will be much broader such as going into teaching or research.

Further Training

Once you are fully qualified and have some experience under your belt, you can increase your career prospects even further by adding to your skills and knowledge by undertaking courses which include:

• BVNA Pharmacy Management for Veterinary Nurses
• BVNA Certificate in Dentistry
• RCVS Diploma in Advanced Veterinary Nurses