Animal Management Advanced Technical Certificate (360) – Level 3

Required qualifications

You will need to have a minimum of four GCSE grade at 4 or above with ideally maths and/or English and a science. Or you will have already gained a Level 2 qualification in Animal Care.

What skills will I develop?

This qualification gives you the opportunity to gain a range of specialist practical skills and knowledge that builds upon your knowledge of animals. You will study how to work safely around animals, be responsible for the planning and carrying out animal husbandry, health, handling, feeding and nutrition.

You will also learn about animal behaviour, animal breeds and welfare and animal biology. You can then learn further specialist skills such as caring for exotics, birds or fish, or skills for working in a kennels and cattery or a pet store in your second year.

Careers

The Animal Management Certificate may lead you on to a career such as:

• Animal care assistant

• Kennel and cattery worker/supervisor

• Pet store assistant/supervisor

• Hospital care assistant

• Wildlife assistant

• Dog grooming assistant

• Animal feed sales rep

• Pet sitter

• Dog walker

Work experience

During this course you will be required to gain and undertake 150 hours at a work placement within the animal industry. This can be anywhere with living animals such as, kennels, catteries, rescues, sanctuaries, pet shops, groomers, vets and zoos. During this you will keep a logbook of the activities and roles undertaken at your placement and acquire knowledge and skills of working in industry.

You will also be taught how to produce a CV and covering letter and how to apply for jobs.

English and maths

If you still need to gain your English or maths qualifications, then you can work on those alongside your animal care studies. To reinforce your skills, maths and English will also be embedded in your animal-based studies via contextualised industry specific examples. This will enable you to appreciate why these skills are important when working with animals.

Other important information

As you will be undertaking practical elements, working hands on with the animals you will need to purchase some personal protective equipment (PPE). You will require a boilersuit/overalls to protect your own clothes (compulsory), steel toe capped boots/wellies (compulsory) and waterproofs (if desired).

There will be a selection of trips and guest speakers throughout the course. Some of these are integrated into the learning and assessments therefore compulsory. Others are optional, including the opportunity to go on study tours abroad.