We often get asked various questions on how to join our team at all levels – below, we’ve collated some general information about what is needed for each role in practice, together with some tips for how to get work experience as that’s one of the most common challenges!
Becoming a Veterinary Surgeon
Responsibilities
Veterinary surgeons are responsible for examining animals, recommending the appropriate diagnostic or treatment plans, diagnosing conditions, prescribing medication, performing surgeries and providing medical treatment to animals. They also advise pet owners on animal care and welfare.
Qualifications
Becoming a veterinary surgeon requires university study. The process is best described by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), who have a detailed information page. They discuss the different routes into veterinary practice in the UK, different types of experience that would be useful to prepare for the course, and they also list the universities where you can study veterinary medicine so you can see each university’s entry requirements. It’s important to note that some of these institutions aren’t accredited yet – this doesn’t mean they don’t provide a high standard of education, just some of them are newer vet schools who can only receive accreditation once their first cohort has graduated.
Getting into vet school in the UK can be challenging, but with options like contextual offers and gateway programmes, there is a lot available to help motivated individuals qualify and become a veterinary surgeon.
It is also worth bearing in mind that the RCVS do also recognise qualifications from some other countries, either directly or with some additional exams to sit before being admitted as a member of the RCVS (a requirement of being a veterinary surgeon in the UK). Some students may choose this option, usually by finding a university whose course is recognised by the RCVS and taught in English! This route is sometimes preferred because the courses and/or general living costs can be less expensive than study in the UK (although there would not be access to student finance), or you may just miss grade requirements for UK university entrance. This route can be a fair bit more complex, but is another option to consider provided you do extensive research into the various options available.
Veterinary surgeons experience a very low unemployment rate, as the industry is experiencing a shortage of veterinary surgeons which was compounded by Brexit (a lot of EU vets left the UK) and COVID (a lot of vets who were on the cusp of retiring decided to do so a bit earlier than they perhaps had planned). This means there are plentiful options in terms of places to work, and opportunities for further development.
Common misconceptions
- Veterinary is the medical career for those who want to work with animals rather than people. This is something we often hear from vet school applicants and students. The majority of graduates become first opinion veterinary surgeons, where you assess patients and then agree a course of action with the owner. This means you’re constantly working with people (colleagues, clients, representatives from pharmaceutical companies, specialists, just to name a few) to achieve the desired outcomes for your patients. Some routes (research, government service, pharmaceutical development) may mean less face to face time, but the total number of graduates going into these roles is lower.
- Vets are rich. Although the cost of veterinary care is rising, this is largely due to increases in running costs rather an salaries. The RCVS website illustrates salary scales based on the 2022/2023 salary survey of the industry, and these are often lower than comparable industries such as working as a doctor or dentist in the NHS.
- If vets loved animals, they’d give all veterinary care for free or discounted rates. Providing veterinary services is expensive – staff, equipment, training, building maintenance costs etc. all rack up. Veterinarians in private practice, where no additional funding is available other than what is earned through the day-to-day work of the practice, have to be mindful of this, and charge appropriately for their time, skills and the treatments provided. This can mean challenging conversations with owners regarding the financial viability of certain treatment options, and can be very emotionally difficult. On the other side, charity work can be easier in this regard, as they receive additional funding which can subsidise owner shortfalls – however, treatment options may be limited by guidelines for what the funding can be used for.
- Once you’ve qualified as a vet, you don’t need to do any further learning to work in practice. In order to continue to practice as a vet in the UK, you have to meet the RCVS requirements to remain on the register. One of these is completing 35 hours of Continued Professional Development (CPD) every year, so being a vet is a career of lifelong learning. You can also choose to undertake a number of advanced qualifications in different areas to further your own personal and professional goals.
Additional information
Being a veterinary surgeon is both a rewarding and challenging career. It combines a deep passion for animal care with the demands of complex medical expertise. Veterinary surgeons have the unique opportunity to improve and save the lives of animals, offering comfort not only to the animals themselves but also to their concerned owners. The bond formed through helping animals heal can be incredibly fulfilling. However, the career also comes with significant challenges, such as long hours, emotionally difficult cases, and the pressure of making critical decisions under tight timelines. Balancing the emotional toll with the technical demands of surgery requires resilience, compassion, and a lifelong commitment to learning. It’s useful, not just for your university application but also so you can see what day to day work may look like, to get work experience in a veterinary practice (even if it’s just for a couple of weeks) to see if it’s the right path for you. We talk more about getting work experience at the end of this article.
Becoming a Veterinary Nurse
Responsibilities
Veterinary nurses support the veterinary surgeon in caring for animals and carrying out treatment plans. They assist in surgeries, monitor anaesthetic, take blood, prepare laboratory samples and provide nursing care. They also host nurse clinics for client education and preventative care. Nurses can also carry out minor surgery under the direction of the vet.
Qualifications
As a veterinary nurse training practice, we often respond to enquiries about training opportunities, how to get into the industry and how to become a veterinary nurse. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons provides a lot of information on this on their website, so this is a good place to start.
Below we have listed some of the commonly asked questions and answered them, to clarify the process and how it works if you would like to have Heathfield Vets as your training practice.
How can I become a veterinary nurse?
There are two routes to becoming a veterinary nurse, the Foundation Degree in Veterinary Nursing and the Apprenticeship in Veterinary Nursing. The courses have different entry requirements, work experience requirements and costs associated with them, so it is worth fully researching both options before embarking on either, to make sure that you choose the right option for you. We will be focusing primarily on the apprenticeship route in this article as that is the most common route into veterinary nursing, and the one which most of our student veterinary nurses are undertaking.
Which route is better for becoming a veterinary nurse?
Both routes are equally valid – you are unlikely to be asked which one you did as long as you have completed your studies and achieved registration with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a Registered Veterinary Nurse. Which one you choose can affect which options you have for further study (for example, the foundation degree can be ‘topped up’ to a degree with further study, which cannot be done with an apprenticeship), but the majority of further study options such as certificates in specific areas of veterinary nursing are open to both routes, with no regard for which one you undertook initially. It is important that you conduct your own extensive research before selecting which option you would like to choose, in order to make sure that the route you have selected is right for you.
Remember that being a registered veterinary nurse (RVN) requires lifelong learning – you must complete a minimum of 15 hours a year of Continued Professional Development (CPD) for every year you want to remain on the register in order to maintain your qualification.
How does the degree programme work?
This section is going to be a lot shorter than for apprentices as most of the information is available on the RCVS link at the beginning of this section. Usually applications for the course are done through UCAS and funding is through Student Finance, much like other degree courses, so our involvement as a first opinion practice is nowhere near as involved as for the apprenticeship programme! The exact structure of the foundation degree in veterinary nursing varies depending on the course provider, but as a general rule the first year involves attending lectures, the second year involves placement in a practice and the third year tends to be back in lectures. Most of the time, universities will assist with contacting practices to arrange the placements.
What kind of assessment is done as part of the qualification?
There are different types of assessment used during the nursing qualification, regardless of whether you are undertaking the apprenticeship or the degree:
- Exams – these are usually undertaken at certain points in the year, testing knowledge for the modules you’ve learnt so far on the course
- Written assignments – these are assigned throughout the year, assessing your knowledge on a specific area of learning
- Skills log – there is a list of skills you are required to become competent in during the course of your time in practice (either working or on placement). You will maintain a log of these skills, the cases you’ve used them on and then your clinical coach will sign you off as competent once you’ve demonstrated the required level of knowledge in each of them. This will be assessed by your educational establishment to confirm the required level of competence has been shown. This includes skills such as bandaging, animal care, surgical nursing care, and anaesthetic monitoring.
- Practical examination – there is a practical examination which is undertaken at the end of your qualification called the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination).
What are the entry requirements for an apprenticeship in veterinary nursing?
The entry requirements for the course are outlined on the Plumpton College website – if you work for a practice in the South East, they are more likely than not to be your college. The requirements include GCSE grade requirements and employment requirements.
Although this is not an option here at Heathfield Vets, in some practices you will be able to go into employment with them straight after your GCSEs, as long as you are enrolled in an educational course at the same time. Examples of this in the veterinary field include the Level 2 qualification in Veterinary Nursing, or an animal care assistant course, for example. This is to meet the requirement to remain in some form of education until you are 18 years old. You cannot go directly onto the Level 3 Veterinary Nursing apprenticeship due to the requirement that you need to have been employed full time at an RCVS approved training practice for six months before being able to apply.
Here at Heathfield Vets, we only offer the Level 3 Apprenticeship in Veterinary Nursing. This means that you will need to have completed your A-Levels, or alternative course of study (another common one being the Level 3 in Animal Management) before applying to work with us. There are many options available, as outlined here.
What is the work/study balance on the apprenticeship?
Depending on your contracted hours, you will spend one day per week at college and the rest of your working time in practice. Any additional work for the completion of your course (logging cases for your portfolio, studying for your exams and completing your assignments) is done at home.
How can I become an apprentice at Heathfield Vets?
Initially, you will need to apply to become a kennel assistant here at Heathfield Vets. Our kennel assistants get the opportunity and training as part of their role that not only gives them a well-rounded view of what it is like to work in practice, but also to prepare them for the apprenticeship itself. Our kennel assistants stay in their positions for between 6 and 24 months. While 6 months is the minumum required by the college for entry to the course, there are a number of factors that influence when we invite you to apply to the apprenticeship to become a Student Veterinary Nurse (SVN) here at Heathfield Vets.
- Work performance – while you are a kennel assistant, you work performance is being assessed for suitability to apply to the apprenticeship. If there are areas you are struggling in, we want to make sure you have further training and support to succeed in them, and this means that the minumum six months may not be enough – it is a very short period of time to get settled in a new job, often a new industry and in a role in which most people do not have a lot of prior experience. Being excellent as a kennel assistant sets you up for success as a SVN; once you become an SVN, your workload at work increases with training in all the new skills you need to acquire, and so does your workload at home with studying for exams, completing assignments and logging your cases for your portfolio. We also use the kennel assistant role as an opportunity to start learning some of the skills you will need for the course; it means when you do start, not everything is new to you – this makes the transition easier. Before we recommend you to embark on the apprenticeship, we have to be sure you will be able to manage the additional workload, and this means performing to a high standard in your kennel assistant role.
- Attitude – attitude to your work, colleagues, clients and patients is a big part of success as a veterinary nurse. Demonstrating your willingness to learn, being able to take on board feedback and improve, a genuine love and care for animals and resilience when the day is stressful and things get tough are just some of the factors that need to be considered when assessing someone’s suitability to step into the SVN role. While the work is rewarding, it can also be very challenging, and it is important that kennel assistants have enough experience to be sure that they want to embark on the student journey. It is rare, but we have had some cases where they decide that becoming a veterinary nurse is not for them, and it is better this happens before they invest the time and money in their studies.
- Availability of support – a requirement of having apprentices at the practice is that each one needs to be allocated a clinical coach – this is the person that will be your mentor for the three years of study, although you will learn a lot from all your colleagues. There are limits imposed by the college as to how many students each clinical coach can have at a time, in order to make sure that each student gets the appropriate level of support and training. We prefer to keep this ratio as 1:1 as much as possible, as we feel this gives the best experience for our students, and makes sure they get all the support they need. This means that sometimes, kennel assistants have to wait for an existing student to complete their studies before they are invited to apply.
- Time of year – Plumpton always have a September intake, and in most years have a January intake. Depending on when you start working with us, and when you are invited to apply, it can mean waiting for Plumpton’s next intake.
How can I apply for a kennel assistant position?
We announce all recruitment opportunities on our vacancies page and on Facebook, as well as Indeed. You can also complete the application form on the vacancies page and submit it when we are not recruiting, we will keep it on file so that if a role becomes available within six months of you submitting it, you will be considered alongside the other applicants. Other practices will do similarly, so follow them on Facebook/Instagram, send in your CV and a covering letter for them to keep on file
Common misconceptions
- Veterinary nurses get to cuddle puppies and kittens all day. Although we can’t deny that cuddling cute animals is a part of our job, sadly it’s only a small bit of it. Veterinary nurses are heavily involved in cases, including holding animals for treatment or procedures, taking blood, administering medications, preparing laboratory samples, descaling teeth… just to name a few. They also provide nurse clinics, assist with euthanasias, and in some cases perform Schedule 3 procedures such as stitching up wounds, among many other things.
- Vet nursing is just a stepping stone to becoming a veterinary surgeon. Our nursing team have all experienced at least one time where a client asked them if they’re waiting to be able to go to vet school, and although that’s certainly a pathway some veterinary nurses take, veterinary nursing is its own distinct role with a different set of duties – many choose it as their career. It’s a vital role to the function of the practice and although they work closely with veterinary surgeons, they have their own responsibilities. Although veterinary nursing can be an alternative career for those who don’t want to go to or didn’t meet the requirements for vet school but still want to work with animals, the large majority go into the role purely because they want to be a veterinary nurse.
- Veterinary nursing is a stepping stone to being an RSPCA inspector/Animal Rescue Officer. Although it is our understanding that a veterinary nursing qualification may help support an application to the training programme to become an RSPCA inspector/Animal Rescue Officer, it is not a requirement and the training courses are two completely different things. If you aim to become an inspector, it is best to take a look at their website for information on the process.
Becoming a Veterinary Receptionist
Becoming a veterinary receptionist is another fantastic way to be part of the animal care industry. Generally there aren’t minimum grade requirements for the role, but customer service skills are definitely needed. This includes strong communication skills, great organisational ability, good memory or note taking to make sure that jobs are completed and attention to detail. Empathy is also important, as clients are often in need of a listening ear at what is sometimes a very stressful situation for them.
The veterinary reception team are the ‘face’ of the practice – they’re often the first and last person a client will see during their visit, so it’s important that they are knowledgeable, and know practice policies inside and out to be able to guide clients through their journey through the practice.
To become a veterinary receptionist, customer service experience is useful but not essential. On-the-job training is how you’ll learn most of the industry-specific information. Keep an eye on Indeed, and the websites and Facebook pages of all the practices local to you for these roles to be advertised. You can also submit a CV and covering letter if they are not recruiting – usually the practice will be happy to keep it on file for a certain amount of time in case a suitable vacancy arises.
Common misconceptions
- Being a veterinary receptionist is just an admin role. Although veterinary receptionists do not have to hold formal qualifications to do their jobs, there is still a huge amount of information they have to learn and retain because they are primarily responsible for responding to client queries. Not only do they have to know all the things a receptionist is required to know in most reception roles, but they also have to be able to identify emergency or urgent cases (and sometimes the signs aren’t that obvious!), be able to explain how pet insurance works to be able to guide clients through the process, and to know what documentation is needed for each type of visit… and that’s just the start!
- Veterinary receptionists just cuddle puppies and kittens all day. The role is more client than patient facing, and you still have to clean up bodily fluids sometimes! Generally dealing with stressed/upset/angry clients is one of the most difficult parts of the job, so emotional resilience is key.
Becoming a Veterinary Practice Manager
Veterinary practice management also doesn’t usually require any qualifications, although most people enter it by having worked in another role in practice first (e.g. veterinary nurse, receptionist etc.) or come from management experience but in a different industry. The phrase ‘jack of all trades’ comes to mind, although you can’t get away with being master of none – you are responsible for ensuring the smooth running of every aspect of practice. This includes making sure that all activities are compliant with the regulations that govern the profession and managing health and safety, recruitment, human resources, rotas, repairs, training, finances… the list does very much go on.
If you’d be interested in this aspect of working in a veterinary practice, we’d recommend starting with another role in practice, or working your way up to gain some leadership experience in a different industry – and familiarising yourself with the RCVS Code of Conduct is not a bad place to start. Communication skills, attention to detail and being self-motivated are all important parts of this role.
Work experience
Getting work experience is often necessary to apply to veterinary related qualifications, and it can be a challenge. Here are our top tips for getting work experience:
- Make sure you write a CV and covering letter tailored to the type of work experience you are looking to get.
- Spell veterinary correctly throughout (a common error we see!), especially if the application is to a veterinary practice.
- Submit your CV and covering letter yourself. If you believe you’re old and mature enough to gain work experience in a veterinary practice, you need to be able to submit your own application and correspond with the person that replies yourself (rather than having a parent or guardian do it for you).
- For younger applicants, you may not yet have work experience to include on a CV – that’s okay, everywhere you’re applying to will understand that. You can use the covering letter to highlight any relevant experience you may have looking after your own family pets, for example. You can also use any hobbies to demonstrate various skills – for example, you may paint figurines, showing patience and attention to detail, or do gymnastics, which shows perseverance, or you may volunteer somewhere, which shows an ability to manage your time and school workload to fit in community-centred activities. You may also have been given extra responsibilities in school, like becoming a prefect, which shows leadership skills. These are just examples, there are lots of ways to demonstrate skills that haven’t been acquired in a formal work setting, and making an effort to highlight not the activity itself, but the associated skills, will support your application when there isn’t work experience to do this with.
- When applying, it also helps if you are using your own email address, the email address is professional (e.g. firstname.lastname@gmail.com or your school one) and your name appears correctly in the inbox – for example, it says Julia Smith rather than julia smith. Otherwise, you may receive no reply – businesses need to be increasingly careful that the documents they open from an email are not actually a computer virus, so if any of these aspects don’t match they may just delete your application rather than risk that it’s not a genuine application.
- If you are applying while you’re still in school, be aware that you’ll be applying for the same limited windows of time as every other student – usually school holidays. This means that you’ll need to apply to near enough every veterinary practice in the area to have a chance of securing a placement, and it’s better to do this as early as possible.
- Personalise your email to each organisation – make sure to make the effort and address each practice individually, including adding their name on your covering letter, and sending a copy to each individual practice. We get dozens of applications every year for limited placement availability, these little details do make a difference and demonstrate some of the key skills you need for a role in veterinary.
- It’s worth noting that a lot of veterinary practices may not be able to take certain students due to their age, because their insurance will specify this as a clause. This can make it harder for under 16s (and sometimes under 18s although that’s less common) to get work experience in a veterinary practice, so the next bullet point will be particularly important!
- Don’t just focus on veterinary practices: although certain courses will have a requirement of a minumum amount of time in a veterinary practice, this is not the only place to gain relevant experience (and in some cases, getting experience in other aspects of the animal care industry will help secure work experience in a veterinary practice). Other places to apply include:
- Horse riding schools
- Stables
- Animal rescues
- Animal charities
- Pet shops
- Wildlife rescues
- Farms
- Dog trainers
- Dog behaviourists
- Groomers
- Marine/aquatic care centres
- Animal therapy organisations
- Catteries
- Kennels
- Dog walkers
- Animal assistance programmes such as Guide Dogs
If you have a question that has not been answered here, please do not hesitate to contact us.
