The big and shiny work experience bible

Before making an application, in order to develop animal
handling skills, you must obtain varied work experience
for a minimum of two weeks – both in veterinary practice
and with animals. Examples of suitable work experience
other than in veterinary practice include work in a stables,
a kennels, a farm or city farm, an abattoir, an animal
groomers, a pet shop and even a research laboratory.
Brief details of experience and duration of visits should be
set out on your UCAS application form.

Practical Experience
How Much Practical Experience Should I Gain?
As much and as varied as possible which should include:

seeing veterinary practice, both large and small animal if possible.
spending time on livestock farms (dairying and lambing are particularly useful).
other animal establishments, for example, zoos, kennels, catteries, wildlife centres, pig farms, poultry farms & stables.
A day at an abattoir is recommended but not demanded.
Experience gained in veterinary or medical laboratories is also encouraged to help candidates to appreciate the scientific basis of veterinary medicine.
The amount of experience cannot be quantified in terms of days or weeks as it depends, to some extent, on the opportunities available to individual candidates. Obviously the broader the experience the better but applicants are reminded that experience should not be gained to the detriment of their academic studies.

Specific details on your practical experience (number of days/weeks spent and species worked with) should be clearly shown in the personal statement section of your UCAS form.

References from those responsible for supervising relevant work experience are of great assistance, and should be sent directly to the Admissions Officer in the School Office no later than 31st October.

Do I need practical experience?
Success in the veterinary degree programme requires high academic achievement and a great deal of hard work, together with motivation evidenced by some prior practical knowledge. Before coming for interview, you will be expected to have gained experience with a veterinary surgeon, spent a week or two working on a dairy farm and have a variety of experience working with other animals, for example in kennels, stables or on other types of farms. It is recommended that you take a few riding lessons if you have no previous experience of horses. Some applicants may have laboratory experience and may be considering a research career. This will also be taken into consideration.

Work experience
All applicants should have gained at least six weeks experience of working with animals before they apply. For example, this may include experience at the following establishments:

One or more veterinary practices
Working with larger domestic animals on a livestock farm
Other animal experience (e.g. kennels, riding school, zoo etc)
We will consider references from your work experience placements, although we do not wish to receive detailed case studies or journals.

The more work experience the better, ideally this should amount to several weeks over 2-3 years. It needs to cover experience of both large and small animal veterinary work, animal rescue, zoo, animals in research, equine and a range of farmed species. In addition an appreciation that farmed species are part of the food chain and that vets have to care for animals, even in an abattoir.

The primary aim of work experience is to give prospective students an understanding of what it is to be a veterinarian. However it also is an opportunity to learn about veterinary science. Students who simply attend work experience but do not use their time effectively, fail to gain the full benefit from the experience. We expect students to be able to describe and discuss in basic terms the science underpinning and ethical questions related to the various procedures they have observed.

WORK EXPERIENCE

We suggest at least four weeks experience of veterinary practice, preferably spent in more than one practice, and a further six weeks of other animal experience including farm work, stables, kennels etc. Zoo work, visiting abattoirs and working with animals abroad are acceptable but not essential. It is important that you have experience of UK farming systems. References from veterinary work experience placements may be submitted to support your application. These should be sent directly to the Faculty.

Work experience
Many applicants worry unnecessarily that they have not had sufficient veterinary experience before applying. It is helpful to have some personal experience of the veterinary profession and have a realistic idea of what the work may entail.

However, extensive experience is not a prerequisite and seeing a variety of different aspects of the profession for relatively short periods can be more helpful.

In preparation for an application for Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge, you should not give up other worthwhile pursuits such as training in sport, music or drama in order to gain excessive work experience with animals

Im not a fan of cambridge.. or bristol. anyway can you make like, little jokes in the personal statement? (when you say make it witty)

On another note, how well informed are you about Cambridge or Bristol? That comment sounds quite arrogant, snotty and uninformed. Are you going from what you have heard? Have you been there or even spoken to anyone that goes there? If you have then at least bring some kind of reason, otherwise its like saying "I dont like the taste of fish" when you have only ever looked at it.

Im not going to respond to anymore of your comments in this thread as its not the place, but I think you need to be careful in how you express your views.

Depends on your style of wit, if its sarcastic, uninformed, snotty, arrogant or can be misinterpreted as any of the above then best leave that to the medics :P

On another note, how well informed are you about Cambridge or Bristol? That comment sounds quite arrogant, snotty and uninformed. Are you going from what you have heard? Have you been there or even spoken to anyone that goes there? If you have then at least bring some kind of reason, otherwise its like saying "I dont like the taste of fish" when you have only ever looked at it.

Im not going to respond to anymore of your comments in this thread as its not the place, but I think you need to be careful in how you express your views.

i dont think the height restrictions in the dairy can be true, because it seems to me that loads of the people on here are quite short so
a)they have got dairy experience, and
b)these people ore going to be vets, and if theres a sick cow they cant stop someone from treating it because the vet is too short to go inot the dairy!

you may need to confirm that though...

I have planned to fill all the holidays from now untill i apply with work exp, but i have just found lots of animal sanctuaries, rescue places, which although would be too hard to get to everyday for a week, i could get to once or twice.
I was just wondering whether it would be worth going to a couple of places for just a day, and would it look good on my ucas?

yes thankyou! Im just not keen on being that far from home and I just prefer the others