Thank you
I think the first thing is to not worry it’s good your only in year 10 as it means you still have plenty of time to get work experience and hopefully covid won’t be as much of an issue for you in the summer of year 11 going into year 12 so you’ll be able to get lots!
I think I have included all my work experience below, mind this years been a bit of a funny year due to covid so the vet schools reduced their amounts required to accommodate us and I’m sure come your year they will require their standard amount. Also do note I had a lot cancelled (which I will also list).
Work experience - 4 weeks clinical work experience (9:30-6:30 = 180 hours ) - 2 weeks at an orthopaedics vets, 1 week at a farms vet and 1 week at a small animals practice.
*I think usually vet schools (or at least the ones I applied to) require 70 hours of clinical work experience which is 2 weeks. I will warn you that places like RVC only except work experience that has been done within 18 months, so traditionally 2 weeks of my clinical wouldn’t have counted as I did them in year 10, but they changed this for us due to covid.*
- A year and a half at a farm (volunteered every weekend as well as during the week in the holidays)
Could you try and extend your farm experience/ try and make it a regular thing ? As that sort of animal handling experience is really good to have!
- 50 hours volunteering with a cat charity abroad in Fuerteventura (in no means do you need to go abroad I just happened to stumble across this experience).
- 40 hours at a laboratory
So this is all the work experience I managed to gain before lockdown struck.
Here’s all that got cancelled - 2 weeks volunteering at RSPCA
- 2 weeks at an equine riding club
- 1 week clinical experience
- 2 weeks at a zoo
I would highly recommend trying to get some lambing experience. Unfortunately there weren’t any farms that did lambing near me that I could access but it’s a great one to have under your belt! I’d also recommend if you can visiting an abattoir.
Other things you could do are:
- Hydrotherapy for dogs
- Animal shelters
- Kennels
- Any animal charity
- Pet groomers
I’m sure other people will have some great suggestions as well, this is only what I can think of off the top of my head!
Here’s a link to the site I did the majority of my online courses on
https://www.coursera.org/ might want to check it out?
Most of them ranged from 6-12 weeks long (mind I tended to get them all done in 2-3 days during each holiday as I get a bit hooked 😂)
I think I mentioned before but if you can try and get onto one of the vet school Sutton trust summer schools that tends to count as work experience + is a great opportunity!
Here’s the links:
https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/course/university-of-edinburgh/veterinary-medicine/ = Edinburgh
https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/university-partners/royal-veterinary-college/ = RVC
https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/course/university-of-cambridge/veterinary-medicine-2/ = Cambridge
https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/ (just their general website)
I’d also recommend signing up to RVC’s teen vet club —>
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/study/rvc-is-open-for-all/widening-participation/newsletters/teen-vet-clubThere is always some great opportunities on there!
Finally I’d recommend signing up to the vet practice magazine. They are strictly for vet students/ vet practices and don’t usually let non-vets sign up for them but I just emailed and told them I had been reading them at one of my placements and really enjoyed it and so was wondering if I could get them and she signed me up with no problem so maybe do the same?
https://veterinary-practice.com/Finally, try and see if your schools science department offer the bronze/silver/gold crest award as they’re great opportunities to do research projects and could potentially make you a stronger candidate. If your school doesn’t and after some looking into you really want to do it just ask them as it’s aimed at schools and it’s easy for teachers to sign you up (or you can enter privately but may need one of them to assess your project).
https://www.crestawards.org/Okay that is everything I can think of off the top of my head, I will let you know if I can think of anything more. If you have any questions at all feel free to ask me/ PM me and I will try my best to answer them
Best of luck with your application in a few years time!