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French working expat wants reorientation to become vet

Hi there students and students to be ! I am happy to find this community who might help me find answers to my numerous questions.

As stated in the title, I am French, I have been living and working in the UK for 3 years and a half. Now here comes the tricky part. I had always wanted to be a vet, growing up. When I started high school, I still wanted to. But I was "smart" enough to have the possibility to be lazy and obtain reasonable grades without much work. Which lead me to abandon scientific A level equivalent. I obtained a economics and social science oriented one instead and jumped to English Uni, where I kept lazing around, not really knowing what to do. I then decided to drop out and obtained 2 different NVQ as a Cook and then as Pastry Chef. I moved to London and started to work as both chef and waiting staff, move to pastry and then became shop manager of a bakery. I am now still working in a cafe, as part assistant manager.

But I am not happy and I remembered my childhood aspiration and thought it over and over during the last few month, trying to gather as many pieces of information as possible, which is not easy because the field is large.

I am definitely ready to tackle school again, I gained the necessary maturity to stick to something I truly want, no matter how hard. The thing is, I do not really know where to start. I know I need to pass some A levels but do I need to also get some GSCEs first? And what is the best for me to obtain them? Keeping in mind that in the meantime I want to keep a full time job (not if/when in vet school of course) to finance that project as well.

I have tried to find the right answers but I can't seem to find something certain. Does anyone have a website or a school contact to help me out on this?

I am also French so if any other EU student passes by, I would love some insight regarding vet school for a EU student, how different is the application process, student loans possibilities and so on...

Sorry for the giant piece of reading, I also love to write. But thank you for reading and for any useful answer you could give me.

Reply 1

lwescott

Hey, I think your best bet is to contact university admissions offices and see what they suggest - whether you need to sit GCSE and A Levels or if you can use your GCSE equivalents. There may be Gateway courses or similar that you can apply to.

What are your motivations for wanting to become a vet? Having a childhood aspiration is not enough and you will be asked about it at interview.

I would start getting work experience with animal husbandry in kennels, lambing (perfect time of year!), dairy farms and riding stables. Then spend a couple of weeks with a few vet practices to find out about the reality of the job, the role of the vet and if it's something you are really interested.