Trainee Animal Technician

Considering a career as an Animal Technician? - Are you looking to launch your career working with animals? - Are you passionate about looking after animals and offering the best welfare? - Looking for a role with brilliant pay, structured training, and varied employer options? - Are you struggling to get a job working with animals due to a lack of experience or don’t want to be stuck with unpaid, voluntary roles? Did you know that new Animal Technicians will earn on average £20,000 pa – the highest starting salary of any role working with animals (data provided by National Careers Service.gov website) If you want to work with animals and earn a living there are very few career options open to you. Animal careers are specialized and in many cases, the vast majority of animal jobs offer limited career progression, low or no pay (voluntary work) and without clear, achievable career goals. Based on the Government's National Careers Service, an ‘Animal Technician’ career within the life sciences sector offers the highest salary bandings and career progression. Animal Technicians are highly regarded, well paid and offered continuous training within multimillion pound animal facilities. They are well-educated professionals with salaries starting at £15,000 to £20,000 pa rising to £40,000 pa with experience. Management and more senior roles tend to pay between £45,000 - £150,000 pa What is the ATDP? The Animal Technician Development Programme (ATDP) links employers with college leavers and university graduates with 1 key focus 'to train and place animal lovers into a career as an animal technician'. Partner employers include academic institutions such as Universities, charities and some of the world’s leading research organisations. In total, the ATDP has 18 partner employers covering Kent, London, Surrey, Essex, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Wales, and Scotland. We will always match your application to a local ATDP programme with work at a local employer’s animal facility. The ATDP programme has been created by employers specifically as an employability programme combining training, work experience, and paid internships with the sole aim of providing suitable, enthusiastic and developed new Animal Technicians to employers nationwide. By joining the ATDP, you will have access to; - Ring-fenced vacancies – no interviewing, No lengthy applications and No fighting for a job against hundreds of other applicants You will have a team of people who are targeted on getting you ‘that job’ and you will get first dibs on all of them - A structured development programme – from day one of your enrolment you will have clear and achievable goals and be eligible for a 12 week paid internship to complete your training on the job (after completing 2 weeks work experience) - Fast-tracked career opportunities - upon accreditation, you will have access to ATDP partner employers vacancies. These roles are ring-fenced and only made available to accredited ATDP Learners - 24/7 support – our in house team of highly knowledgeable Trainers provide support 24/7 ensuring you have the best experience and training. Having worked as Animal Technicians ourselves we will give you all the training and skills you require to pass each stage of the programme so that you can truly shine in your role. Just drop us a text or call our 24-hour telephone help line. (This is an all year round helpline so yes, it does even include bank holidays) - Continued and ongoing training (CPD) – training provided to you that is specifically focused on the important and rewarding role of an Animal Technician - Work with the most prestigious and interesting organisations in the UK – the role of an animal technician is like no other career working with animals. You can look forward to working within a large team of like-minded professionals in well-funded, clean and state of the art animal facilities - Passionate and sociable teams - work with a team of fellow animal technologists every day that just like you share a passion for animals. You will be joining an elite workforce of super intelligent, animal loving (animal mad) individuals that get to do what they love – to work with animals whilst getting paid - We build a portfolio for you. Whilst on your ATDP journey, you will also build and develop a portfolio that contains employer testimonials based on your performance (which speak volumes compared to a standard CV.) The ATDP programme allows you to show case your ability so if you also struggle in interviews, please do not worry, we are here to help 'by pass' this process with the portfolio being designed to replace the grizzly process  Note: as of April 2019 the ATDP programme has achieved a 96% 'Into Work' rate upon successful completion/accreditation of the programme. Your daily duties as an Animal Technician and Animal Technologist include: - Feeding and watering - General health checking - General animal husbandry - Understanding breeding and scientific procedures - Handling animals - Cage cleaning and washing Providing your aim is to work with animals and you meet our requirements, then this programme is designed for you – our ATDP employer partners are looking to develop tomorrow’s future Animal Technicians. ALL training is provided cost-free providing you are willing to train and can commit to remaining available for Animal Technician employment opportunities for 12 weeks post study accreditation. Apply now to start your career as an Animal Technician or Animal Technologist Please Note: ATDP is delivered throughout the UK, Scotland and Wales with a new intake every 12 weeks, so please feel free to ask for more information as to when and where the next programme is being run. We may also have direct hire opportunities, so please get in touch ASAP Please note when applying You must be willing to commit to the pre-study training which is flexible, home based, online and conducted in your own time. A pre-study pass is easily achievable, as the programme allows learners to retake if need be until an 85% pass rate is achieved. (We have a 100% pass rate so no worries there). Answers are mainly multiple-choice, as it is more about getting you ‘to learn’. ATDP is not about spelling or being able to articulate back the exact answers. We also allow learners up to four weeks to complete this stage although some do it in a matter of days, so plenty of time to sit down and do this. You can go at your own pace, enabling you to complete this as quickly as you like. As you can see, this is a fantastic opportunity to kick start and fast track your career working with animals. So if you are committed to becoming an animal technician and passionate about working with animals then please apply today. Please note: all training costs are paid for by the ATDP which is a social enterprise. All learners are required to read and sign an ATDP enrolment contract which outlines all that is expected of you as a learner whilst on the programme. Here's what some of our ATDP Learners have to say about the programme “I didn’t know where to start when looking for a career working with animals. Before the ATDP I was led told that the only paid animal related jobs were as Veterinary nurse or working in a Zoo. I heard about the ATDP from a careers talk at my college and immediately applied. I was overjoyed to be enrolled and worked through the study modules. Even though some of the questions were hard I was allowed to re-sit the module tests plus the ATDP trainers were brilliant – their coaching and advice really helped me. I then attended a 1 day animal handling course in London at a really smart animal facility. I got to handle rodents and speak to qualified animal technicians about what they do - it was amazing. I was then invited to attend work experience at the same facility and am now completing my final 12 weeks on the job training at another ATDP partner employer. I’m earning £8 per hour during this final 12 weeks training which really helps. Overall I have to say that the ATDP has been a fantastic experience – I can’t wait to become accredited and get a full time job. “ Angela M, HND in Animal Care “I left University 18 months ago and was really fed up trying to find suitable employment – my parents and I felt that all my studying had been for nothing. Even though I was applying for all sorts of different animal related jobs I wasn’t even getting interviewed. I didn’t know anything about working as an Animal Technician before I came across the Animal Technician Development Programme on the internet. The programme allowed me to learn about the work before I even stepped foot in an Animal Unit and for me it’s been a really worthwhile. I’m now employed full time in an Animal Unit earning just over £20k and work with the most amazing bunch of people. I absolutely love my job and cannot recommend the programme enough.” Michael S, Zoology degree graduate