Animal Care Technical Certificate – Level 2

Required qualifications

You will need to have a minimum of four GCSE grade at 3’s or above with ideally maths and/or English and a science. Or you will have gained a merit or distinction in a Level 1 qualification.

What skills will I develop?

The course is all about preparing you for a career in the animal care industry. You will develop your scientific knowledge alongside the behavioural and care requirements of a wide variety of animal species. These skills will be put into practise when working alongside our animals located on the college’s zoo.

A range of modules offered include biology, feeding, accommodation, behaviour, handling, health and welfare, health and safety, British wildlife and kennels and cattery.

• Maintain Health and Welfare
• Animal Feeding and Accommodation
• Animal Behaviour and Handling
• The Principles of Animal Biology
• British Wildlife, Species, Habitats and Rehabilitation
• Caring for Zoo Animals
• Working in the Landbased Industry
• Health and Safety for the Landbased Industries

Careers

We will guide you into looking at the wide variety of animal care based careers ranging from kennel and pet shop assistants, vet nurses to zoo keepers. Throughout the course we look at the requirements needed for all job opportunities and give guidance on what you need to do next. This could be going straight into employment or applying for the next level of qualification.

Work experience

You will need to complete 150 hours work experience as part of the qualification. This will need to be organised by yourselves, however we can offer guidance where needed. It is advisable to obtain and begin your work experience placement at the beginning of your course.

English and maths

Depending on your grade, you may need to continue to study either maths or English alongside this course. This will be completed as part of your normal college timetabled week. Both English and maths will play a part in all aspects of the course. This will include weighing animals and their diets, communicating information both verbally and written and creating animal enclosure designs.

Other important information

You will need to purchase PPE suitable for working with animals , this will include overall or boiler suits and steel-toe capped boots. Waterproofs for when the wet weather comes.

For practical’s ALL piercings need to be removed, no false nails may be worn, no painted nails. Piercings, false nails and painted nails are prohibited.