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Our goal is to see students succeed in their animal care career path and to ensure we provide the veterinary industry with high quality, employable graduates. There are two factors we consider when assessing applications for our courses.
Firstly, applicants are required to meet the Compulsory Prerequisite outlined by ASQA (Australian Government) . Secondly we review each applicant based on a combination of individual experience, education, ability and suitability to work with animals. We often refer to this as the AVT Selection Criteria. Learn more about this below.
To enrol in ACM40418 Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing, you will be required to have either :-
* AVT’s ‘ACM20217 Certificate II in Horse Care’ (no longer offered) also meets the prerequisite for our Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing course. You will need to confirm whether or not this prerequisite meets your institution’s requirements if you are not studying with AVT.
Meeting the compulsory prerequisite or equivalency does not guarantee entry into ACM40418 Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing. Once prerequisites have been met, prospective students may then apply for entry in to ACM40418 and are subject to the course selection criteria as described here
You will be required to complete an online application form to apply for this course. This form includes questions about your previous knowledge and skills as well as other qualifications you have completed.
If you have completed an alternative qualification that may be equivalent to the prerequisite you will need to submit formal qualification documents including a certificate and results listing all units studied such as a Statement of Attainment (note these are not required if your qualification was gained from AVT).
If you believe you have relevant knowledge and skills as a result of workplace experience – you will be required to provide information about previous experience. See our separate FAQ on ‘What evidence do you need of my workplace related skills and knowledge?’.
If you have successfully completed the ACM20117 Certificate II in Animal Studies or ACM20121 Certificate in Animal Care or a directly equivalent qualification you can complete the full application form. Here’s a few things you will be asked about:-
If you cannot provide sufficient evidence to prove you meet the prerequisites, we will then work with you to establish a unique fast-track program for entry.
AVT recognised animal care qualifications that qualify for exemption
The following nationally recognised qualifications are examples of related qualifications that can be deemed equivalent:-
Other qualifications may be relevant, although must be a Certificate III or a higher level qualification and will include those where you can demonstrate you have gained experience in all of the following five areas :-
As a guide, examples of other qualifications involving animals that may meet equivalency include commencement or completion of degrees in areas such as:-
Unfortunately a non-animal science based university or college qualification does not meet the prerequisite for this course. You will need to show evidence of knowledge in animal care or animal studies.
Examples of tertiary qualifications that will NOT meet the prerequisite include:-
Please refer to our previous question for qualifications that do qualify for recognition.
In order for us to ascertain whether you meet the entry requirement as a result of knowledge and skills you have gained in the workplace, you need to provide evidence which is relevant and current and may include:
We may or may not also need to carry out verbal or written testing of certain subjects/units to help us with the assessment of your application for exemption from completing a Certificate II in Animal Studies/Animal Care. Fees may apply.
Equivalency of the prerequisite qualification, Certificate II in Animal Care/Studies may include relevant employed or voluntary (work experience) positions in a range of animal care facilities.
You will be asked to demonstrate equivalent skills and knowledge in the following five areas:-
Here’s some examples of tasks you may have performed whilst working in an animal care facility:-
Examples of animal care related workplaces where you will need to demonstrate at least a minimum of 1 years’ experience include:-
Unfortunately, caring for your own pets at home or hobbies and interests with animals is not adequate experience.
If your skills and knowledge are deemed equivalent, this does not mean you will be awarded a Certificate II in Animal Care/Studies. Nor does it guarantee you entry into this course. Our normal selection criteria applies for all courses.
If you have met the prerequisite and believe you have the academic ability and what it takes to be a veterinary nurse, you can apply online or register your interest in one of our next intakes.
Our graduates are sought after by Veterinary Practices throughout Australia. One of the reasons for this is our selection process. For this reason, places in the AVT Veterinary Nursing course are highly competitive and limited. This also means applicants are subject to our normal selection process. This involves considering your aptitude for working in the animal care industry. If you are currently employed in a veterinary practice and have the support of your employer to study this qualification, this will be considered favourably.
When selecting students, we also consider two other important criteria as outlined below.
We look for evidence of your ability to study at the Certificate IV level. This may be based on your completion of school or other studies. We do not apply strict rules on what schooling you need to have completed and all students can present evidence of their ability to show equivalency to this level.
It is recommended that you have completed or have equivalent language, literacy and numeracy at a year 12 high school level. Throughout this course, you will be required to read and interpret workplace policy and procedures, technical and medical terminology, perform moderate level calculations and exercise various forms of workplace communications.
For students that do not have evidence of previous studies we may ask you to complete one of our own aptitude assessments that may allow you to demonstrate your ability. These assessments are designed to assess your language, literacy and numeracy skills. We may ask you to take some further background studies if we feel you need extra study experience.
Veterinary nursing can be both a physically and emotionally challenging job at times and requires you to have a certain amount of resilience and maturity due to the nature of the veterinary industry and the type of situations that you will face.
A veterinary nurse’s role involves as much interaction with people as it does with animals. This means excellent communication and customer service abilities are essential. Good interpersonal skills are required to be able to interact with and convey information to clients and other members of the hospital team.
Our selection process will take into consideration the quality of your application as well as how you perform during a formal interview, either face to face, Zoom, Teams or via telephone (if your application reaches this stage). Behavioural, cognitive and interpersonal assessments are used to help us with our selection.
As mentioned above, places are highly competitive and limited.
Places are offered to supported eLearning (online correspondence) students based on the availability of a Veterinary Practice to support your training. If not already employed in a practice, you are required to locate a practice willing to support you. For prospective students we have an workplace kit which may assist you to locate a practice to support your studies.
If we are not able to offer you a place at the time of your application, we will advise you on a plan for the future. This may include an education pathway such as qualifications in animal studies or animal care or seeking work experience.
The leader in Vet Nursing qualifications, Animal Care (Animal Studies) and Animal Behaviour and Training Courses for students wishing to pursue a career working with animals. AVT is a nationally recognised training provider based in Perth, Western Australia providing on-campus and online courses to students studying throughout Australia. Learn More
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where our campus is based, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and we commit to walking alongside our indigenous brothers and sisters. We extend that respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our community.
Applied Vocational Training (AVT) Registered Training Provider No.5273