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Volunteering South Africa this Summer

Hi guys
I want to go to South Africa this Summer and volunteer with animals or maybe take a pre-vet course (lectures and practical work) for people considering a career as a vet ! Will this count as work experience ? And has anyone done something like this???
Reply 1
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suirrel
13
No, it will not count as work experience due to the fact that it is paid for, which would make it unfair for people who could not afford those sorts of things. However I am sure it will be very fun, and could give you insight into the career. It is by no means necessary -- you can learn a lot of things about veterinary medicine from seeing practice at local vets.
Original post by Clodagh 555
Hi guys
I want to go to South Africa this Summer and volunteer with animals or maybe take a pre-vet course (lectures and practical work) for people considering a career as a vet ! Will this count as work experience ? And has anyone done something like this???


It isn't counted as work experience purely because not everyone can afford to go out there and do such a thing as it's expensive BUT you are free to put it down as work experience on applications, but you won't be any better than an applicant without it.

Which one are you doing out there?

I worked on shamwari game reserve for a couple of months prior to getting into vet school and they were in talks while I was out there of doing a 'pre vet' course for future applicants. I was an ambassador (and still am as far as I'm aware) for this course. Any pre vet course is a brilliant experience and definitely something to do if you can afford it as it gives you loads of skills you can use in the future and it's also really good to travel out there.

If you want to know anything about it just pm me. Obviously I've not done the pre vet course but I volunteered out there and I've got a lot of experience with that kind of thing :smile:


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Reply 3
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Clodagh 555
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5
hi! Thanks for the help. Not really sure which one yet maybe Go Eco or GVI but not really sure about them :s-smilie: don't know whether I should spend my summer at home working in local vets ect and save a big trip until I'm in uni !!


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Original post by Clodagh 555
hi! Thanks for the help. Not really sure which one yet maybe Go Eco or GVI but not really sure about them :s-smilie: don't know whether I should spend my summer at home working in local vets ect and save a big trip until I'm in uni !!


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All I'm going to say is it's an amazing experience, it depends on whether you've got enough work experience currently to mean you going away won't waste time you could be spending collecting it in the uk. The issue with doing it whilst at vet school is you may not have time to do a long time out there. You can do vets go wild which is brilliant which can be counted as ems so that's an option. I found it a good experience before uni because I learned to be independent, I knew I could go off on my own and I would be fine after finding my way (or not) around Johannesburg airport by myself haha!


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Reply 5
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Clodagh 555
OP
5
Original post by Lizziefickling


All I'm going to say is it's an amazing experience, it depends on whether you've got enough work experience currently to mean you going away won't waste time you could be spending collecting it in the uk. The issue with doing it whilst at vet school is you may not have time to do a long time out there. You can do vets go wild which is brilliant which can be counted as ems so that's an option. I found it a good experience before uni because I learned to be independent, I knew I could go off on my own and I would be fine after finding my way (or not) around Johannesburg airport by myself haha!

thanks for all the advice! I think I have decided against it for this Summer but the vets go wild thing sounds good for the future ! Thanks ! 😋

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