Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

viki Weigh — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:01:11 GMT

Thank you all very much for the input. It has all been very helpful. Iv got myself onto the PTLLS course starting end of Jan and have got a nursing college to get experience from. Thanx Alison thats very useful and will deffinately look at the link. I think once Im happy doing a little class then maybe venturing out to the Universities seeing as thats how I started. Cant wait and good luck to those of you who are doing the PTLLS aswell

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Alison G — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:18:59 GMT

Yes, we (The College of Animal Welfare) are running a series of free open evenings over the next few weeks for anyone looking to find out more about becoming a Lecturer - dates and more details etc can be found on our blog (http://blog.caw.ac.uk/index.php/caw-news/lecturer-open-evenings-ever-wondered-what-it-is-like-to-be-a-lecturer/).

They should be interesting evenings :)

Alison

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Louise B — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:12:50 GMT

You might like to keep an eye on the Harper Adams University vacancies page on the website. I am not saying that there is a vacancy coming up or anything but you never know when a maternity cover post might come up

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

maylane — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 17:32:07 GMT

I got an email newsletter from college of animal welfare this week, they are running some open evenings for anyone interested in becoming a lecturer, you can email their admin for info - admin@caw.ac.uk or check their website.

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Jennifer Marshall — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:13:45 GMT

This is all such great info! Lecturing is something that I've always been interested in and something that I always envisaged myself doing after I had been working in practice for several years. Does anyone have any thoughts on how much experience you should ideally have before considering teaching? I know myself that it probably comes down to how comfortable you feel in your own knowledge and experience but was just curious to know if prospective employers had minimum number of years they looked for?

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

JaneRVN — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:38:13 GMT

Wow - 1 hour prep for 1 hour teaching is really generous. Ofsted guidelines are 30 mins prep for 1 hour teaching. I have found you rarely get that.

Agree first year is toughest, or if you change subject area.

Go for it, Princess Ophelia has given excellent advice. Just apply, you can do PTLLS but with current Cert Ed it isn't taken into account, so you still need to do the full course.

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Alia — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:50:46 GMT

I can completely agree about the first year of full time teaching being the most hard work, absolute drain on your working life ever! I love it though - started as a years maternity cover but the member of staff returned f/t so now I do set hours at the college and the rest of the time locum in practice. Best of both worlds. I'm doing the CertEd and am in my 2nd year. It is a lot of work especially as mentioned that you do often use all your spare time out of work prepping lessons, never mind researching and writing assignments for your course. Keep up with time management, be organised as best as possible and try and fit some time in for you as well!

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Louise B — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:49:04 GMT

Hi Vicky, I am a lecturer in vet nursing. In my experience, just start applying for posts even without a teaching qualification. Whilst it is desirable, teaching at a lot of colleges has quite a high turnover of staff as teaching is very hard work, can be stressful and it is very much like marmite - you either love it or you hate it. Thankfully for my students I love it but it is worth getting some teaching experience before paying good money for the teaching cert. Once you have a post, the college will usually pay for this anyway and generally they just stipulate you have to obtain one within three years of starting teaching if you haven't done so already.

If you want to get a teaching post, the way to maximise your chances is simply to apply for a maternity position as these get far fewer applications because anyone in their right mind doesn't want to just do a maternity cover (from a short term perspective). The hardest year in teaching is always the first year as you always have all your lecture notes to prepare from scratch. Most colleges allocate you roughly one prep hour for every one formal contact hour with the student (we are lucky and get a bit more than that if in your first year of teaching) - unless you are superwoman or have low standards or are lucky to inherit fab notes from your predecessor you will find that you spend far more hours than this and can easily right off your life during term time! The second year onwards gets much easier but it is the crucial first year which often folds people who stop seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hence why maternity posts are not so sought after!!!

However....

If you can accept this, it is a easier route into teaching that gives you a real chance to experience what teaching is all about. Maternity posts often lead into permanent posts too. I had a nurse who left my practice several years ago after I convinced her to apply for a maternity post (she was avoiding them as not permanent) and she ended up permanent, loved it and never looked back. If it doesn't end up permanent, well, at least you will know if you like teaching AND if you do, you will be much more marketable than someone with a teaching qualification but not much teaching experience within the sort of environment you want to work in. I did my teaching cert stuff last year (but not submitted my portfolio yet) and I can honestly say that it has taught me very little in comparison with what I am learning all the time doing the job. There are loads of books out there and the practical stuff that the colleges give you can easily be replicated by doing microteach sessions for work colleagues and asking for their feedback. If you want to impress, you could always contact the local colleges, express and interest and ask for their advise on which teaching books, etc they found useful. You could always volunteer to go in an help out on a practical session and see what happens ....

Good luck. It is a very rewarding career - but it isn't for everyone (as evidenced by the number of vet nurses who return to practice and a lower salary rather than stay in teaching) so don't spend out loads if you can help it

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Victoria Nielsen RVN — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:26:39 GMT

Yes, I'm doing this alongside my full time position as Head Nurse in practice. I start the PTLLS next month and I can let you know how it goes! I've started to do research and start on the first assignment ahead of starting the course. It wasn't that expensive. My course is at West Herts College, and it was £388. My employer is contributing towards it and I'm paying some of it as well, so it's worked out great. My employers are very supportive and are encouraging me to do the course so it's good if you have the support :)

You need to show the college at interview that you have experience relating to the education and training of students (i.e. Clinical Coach), do maths and english assessments to Level 2, are able to cope with the workload and have a desire to pursue a career in the education sector. If you have all of these, do it :)

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

bongo — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:10:05 GMT

[quote user="Vicki Nielsen RVN"]

I'm starting my PTLLS in the New Year, and doing work experience at various colleges in order to gain further knowledge into the methods of teaching and how the Level 3 Diploma is delivered to students. Work experience has always been the one thing lacking for me so maybe try some work experience, shadow a lecturer for the day to determine if it is what you want to do?

I'm doing my PTLLS as an evening course, so I can still work full time as well as doing the qualification alongside it. You can do this at your local college, which is where I am doing it. I'm really looking forward to it!

Best of luck! Vicki x

[/quote]

Do you do this alongside your normal job then? I think I might do this once I have my dip avn out of the way if thats the case. How are you finding it? is it expensive?

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

viki Weigh — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:57:40 GMT

Thank you all for your help! Im looking into doing the PTTLS and managed to get some experience at a veterinary college. So fingers crossed one day Ill get there.

Thanx again x

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Victoria Nielsen RVN — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:43:55 GMT

Best of luck! Vicki x

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Stuart Ford-Fennah — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 13:19:58 GMT

Lecturing is so much fun - have done some part time in the past and really enjoyed it - the most time consuming part is producing the powerpoint slides and notes for your students but this is great fun too if you enjoy that kind of thing - i did :-)

Good luck in finding some teaching - try you local college

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

laurad — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:07:29 GMT

what a fab question i have been considering lecturing nurses for a while just didn't know where to start about getting into it. I have similar a BSC and the Dip AVN and 7 years experience just no experience lecturing just to our 7 nurses at lunch time meetings. il look into the petals too :) x x

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

JaneRVN — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:06:12 GMT

Rather like nursing teacher training is usually undertaken while teaching. PTLLS can be done before entering teaching, it is a 10 week course.It may be worth offering to do some CPD at a local college to see if you like talking on front of a class..

Sounds odd but I worked with a girl who wanted to lecture, but did not actually want to speak in public!

Cert Ed etc will be done once employed as a lecturer.

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

viki Weigh — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:38:45 GMT

I am currently in practice and hope to do this in long term starting in a few years, however, I would like to ideally still be working in practice whilst gaining the teaching qualification if that is at all possible. Would you suggest doing 'petals' as well as the cert or dip? Thank you for the reply

Re: Becoming a Veterinary Nurse Lecturer

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:20:54 GMT

One of the first certificates is called Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) (some folks call it 'petals'). If you intend to do this long term, a Certificate or Diploma in Education is probably your next step. Are you currently in practice?