Pre Vet Course: Essential Farming Work Experience for Aspiring Vets. How it Started…

The Pre Vet Course was set up to help those who are struggling to find farming work experience. Before I (Becky) went to vet school, I found it incredibly difficult to find farmers willing to take me on for work experience. Not being from a farming background and living in South East England (where there are very few farms!), I became disheartened by the endless phone calls and unanswered messages. I left for vet school with limited farming work experience and felt like I was playing catch-up during the first year of my degree.

During the course of my degree, I had so many amazing opportunities and came to realize that production animal medicine was much more interesting than I initially thought. I met lots of farmers during my first few years of vet school and realized that most were happy to teach and share their knowledge. This made me curious as to why I had found it so difficult to gain experience before leaving for vet school. After spending a lot of time speaking with farmers across the country, I realized that their main concern was safety. Almost all the farmers I spoke to were worried about students getting hurt due to their lack of experience—whether it was from the animals (for those of you who haven’t been on the receiving end of a cow kick, it really hurts!) or from machinery.

This got me thinking about how we could solve this impossible problem: farmers are reluctant to have inexperienced students on their farms, but students can only gain experience by being on farms. That’s when the idea for the Pre Vet Course first formed.

After a year of planning and discussion, in my final year of university, we took the plunge and set up the course. The aim of the Pre Vet Course is to provide students aged 16+ with veterinary work experience that bridges the gap between inexperienced students and commercial farms. With veterinary medicine entry requirements becoming increasingly demanding, I feel it is essential that we give students from non-farming backgrounds an opportunity to learn key practical skills in a safe and relaxed environment. These skills will enable them to thrive during future farm animal placements and at university.

We have received fantastic feedback from this year’s course attendees, with all students leaving more confident and competent in handling farm animals and horses. Our main aim is to give those students struggling to find farming work experience an opportunity to learn, helping them on their way to achieving their dream of becoming a vet.