How to Choose a Good Vet Tech Course
5 min readAre you an animal lover? Do you love to spend your time taking care of them and playing with them? Do you easily get angry when someone mistreats the animals?
Do you connect emotionally with the animals?
There you go!
You have all the possible abilities to become a good and capable Veterinary Technician.
Basically, a veterinary technician is the assistant of a Veterinarian who assists and performs a lot of functions under the guidance of the Veterinarian.
The veterinary technicians look after the animals in laboratories, hospitals, and clinics. They care for the well being of the of the animals by doing their routine tasks like observing the health conditions of the animals, conducting laboratory examinations, giving vaccines and medications, cleaning, bathing and feeding animals as well as taking care of the injured or sick animals.
Generally, a lot of veterinary clinics take care of small animals like cats, dogs, birds but then sometimes there may be cases of bigger animals like cow and cattle. For this reason, a veterinary technician should be trained to handle all types of animals.
The Veterinary Technicians play a large role in helping the veterinarians with surgery and other procedures. Although they are not as popular as the veterinarians but then there is a great need for them.
So, if you are planning to become one, you need to attend a Vet Tech Course to become qualified for the respective post. Because this post requires proper training and education. To need proper training, you need to have to attend the best Vet Tech School or Course.
Here are the tips that will help you to choose the best Vet Tech Course
1. Credited and Licensed Course
This is basically the first thing that you should take care of while choosing a Vet Tech Course for yourself.
You just cannot compromise with any XYZ Vet Course. Ensure that you look for a veterinary technician course from a school that is accredited and licensed, This lets to be sure that the school is valid and fake.
Moreover, if you choose any normal school, you would simply be wasting your time and money and all the studying, training and learning will simply go in vain.
This is because the normal schools will not make you capable enough to qualify the credentials that are required for a Veterinary Technician.
Also, if you choose a school that is non-accredited or does not have a proper license, then the value of your degree will reduce and you will face much trouble when you start looking for a job.
Not just the school or the course is important but the teachers and the instructors also hold significant importance. Inquire about the qualifications and educational background of the teachers and instructors of that particular course.
2. Variety of Training Methods
The kind of training methods that the course uses is one of the most important elements of an online vet tech course.
Well, opting for a course that just has one method of teaching is an old fashioned way. So choose a course or school that offers a variety of teaching methods.
Multiple methods of teaching will help you to get wider knowledge that is going to be highly useful once you start working.
There can be a number of teaching methods like:
(i) Classroom Lecture
These are the normal classroom lectures usually reserved for discussions and explanations. You will have to go to the place where the classes are being conducted.
(ii) Online Tutoring
This is also a type of classroom lecture but the only difference was that you can attend the class from anywhere in the world. There is no compulsion of going and attending the class in a physical location.
(iii) Clinical Learning
This is a type of internship. Just like other students are sent to offices to get an actual and formal work experience, similarly, the veterinary technicians are sent to the vet clinics or laboratories to seek the guidance of a professional veterinarian.
This type of learning helps you to apply all your theoretical knowledge into practice
(iv) Applied Learning
In applied learning, the students actually carry out the responsibilities of a Vet Tech in community clinics usually planned for immunization and vaccination of animals or for taking the physical exams.
3. Onsite Facilities
Having elite onsite facilities defines whether a vet tech school or course is good or not. This is because the onsite facilities gives the students a chance to to perform practical sessions.
Here, you test practice what is taught by your teachers or instructors without any interruption. Some example of onsite facilities are laboratories, the surgical suites to assist the veterinarians and animal homes.
Some onsite facilities also include the tour of the area where the vet tech facilities are found.
Also make sure that the facilities also include the right kind of equipment and professionally trained instructors.
4. Placement Assistance
Gone were the days where you had to first complete your studies and then after some that spend a couple of months to look for a job.
Nowadays, a lot of modern schools offer job placement assistance when you are about to complete the course, so that before completing the course you already have a job in hand.
Make sure that your school or course also offers similar assistance so that even you have a job in hand before you complete the course.
Do not restrict yourself to the placement assistance only, check for the vet tech schools or course that also offer career advice, counselling and also continues to help and support you even after your course have been completed.
5. Veterinary Technician National Examination
The Veterinary Technician National Examination is the ultimate exam that the Vet Tech has to qualify in order to become professional.
No doubt, you can trust the school or course that offers you to appear for this exam.
Some schools offer a similar course that is regulated by the state where the school is located instead of the Veterinary Technician National Examination.
Hence, assure that your school is out of those that allow you to appear for the Veterinary Technician National Examination.
