31 Jul 2024
Organisers of a campaign which aims to address the sector’s recruitment and retention challenges say now is the time for action as a new summer camp for aspiring students gets underway.
Allister Webb
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Image: Hữu Thanh Cái via Pixabay
Veterinary professionals are being urged to take part in a new survey which its organisers hope will help to end the “tragedy” of the sector’s current staff exit levels.
The initiative coincides with a new summer camp opening today (31 July), where dozens of Scottish teenagers are set to be given a taste of life at vet school.
But while they want to encourage young people to consider careers in the sector, survey organisers say more also needs to be done to keep clinicians in practice after they graduate.
The project website said: “It’s a noble calling to become a vet, vet nurse or technician. And it’s a tragedy that the current working culture is making a shocking number of people leave almost as soon as they’ve joined.
“Staff in veterinary practices care deeply for the animals they tend. They deserve that same care to be extended to them.”
The survey represents the latest phase of a campaign launched by Karen Gardiner in late 2022 with the aim of inspiring more young people to consider careers in the veterinary sector.
Since then, thousands of copies of a children’s book depicting the work of a vet have been placed in Scottish primary schools while professionals have also been challenged to reach out to the next generation on social media.
Around 50 aspiring veterinary students are taking part in the inaugural Future Vets summer camp, which is taking place at the SRUC’s Oatridge campus in West Lothian until Friday, 2 August, while applications are already open for the 2025 programme.
While the project has primarily focused on the situation in Scotland until now, officials have stressed they are looking for clinicians across the UK to take part in the survey to generate the evidence needed to drive change in the future.
They argue that now is the time for action amid both the sector’s enduring retention and recruitment challenges, plus the current investigation of companion animal services by the CMA.
The survey, which will remain open until the end of August, can be accessed here while anyone interested in the pilot programme should email [email protected]
