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Want a career caring for animals?
When you complete the Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing you will be ready for a career as a veterinary nurse, or animal welfare worker.
You will have the skills and knowledge to work effectively in a veterinary practice, providing care to a wide variety of animals, assisting with surgery preparation and procedures, performing pathology and imaging procedures, providing post-surgery care and advice, and workplace safety and health.
This course is popular and highly competitive to get into. Please ensure you enter all your work and work experience, both related to the field and unrelated, in your application.
Part time studies – study this course with us part time including one day a week at campus in Semester 1 and one day a week at a workplace in industry. Your work placement must be arranged by you prior to applying to study. To take up this option, revisit here when Semester 1 applications are open.
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Entry into this qualification is open to students who:
- hold a Certificate II in Animal Studies OR
- hold a relevant Certificate III or higher level qualification in an animal science discipline OR
- can demonstrate equivalent skills and knowledge in a relevant animal science discipline to any of the above qualifications.
Work placement is a requirement for this course
This course has a mandatory work placement component that all students must complete. South Metropolitan TAFE will assist students in finding a suitable work placement by working with our industry partners. Please be aware that industries and employers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which has meant that some work placements have been cancelled, put on hold or student places significantly reduced. While every effort is being made to work with our industry partners to secure work placements during this unprecedented time, there may be delays in students being placed. As a result of these delays some students may take longer than the expected time to complete their course. Lecturing staff will keep all students up to date, and will inform students if this may affect them and cause a delay in finishing their course.
 Please note this list should be used as a guide only as job titles and qualification requirements may vary between organisations.
SM TAFE actively promotes the employment availability of course graduates to key industry partners and organisations. We also seek expressions of interest from organisations for the placement of our students into work experience. We endeavour to assist students into a career pathway, but please be aware that neither employment nor work experience placement is guaranteed by us.
To access free career planning and job search assistance, visit the Jobs and Skills Centres page.
Study options and next steps
Click on your preferred study mode below to get started with your application or enrolment.