We all love spending time with our four-legged friends, and who amongst us hasn’t considered the idea of working with dogs?
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, there are now more options available than ever before when it comes to planning a career working with animals. It’s quite common to hit a point in your life where you want a change — you realise what you love and what’s important to you. No matter your age, you can change your day job for a role working with animals. And if you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. There are steps you can start taking now to progress your new career.
“A lot of people don’t know exactly what they want when they start their studies, but some are very decided on what they want to do,” says Dr Kerry Nichol, the head teacher of Animal Science at TAFE NSW. The starting point for many people who know they want a career working with animals but aren’t sure on the exact direction is to complete a Certificate II in Animal Studies, which is a sound introduction to the industry.
“You learn things on feeding and watering animals, health, housing, communicating with owners and, from there, people tend to get a good idea of what they are really interested in,” Dr Kerry says. One benefit of completing this particular introductory certificate is that once it’s done, you can then move into a specialist course, and a lot of the units you’ve already completed will count toward this secondary qualification.
Think sitting in a classroom and studying sounds like too much of a bore? Don’t worry — TAFE NSW encourages work experience with all of their course attendees. “Around half of our current students already have jobs within the industry,” says Dr Kerry, who adds that several have even gone on to set up their own businesses.
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