ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

lavetnurse — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 22:04:39 GMT

[quote user="Scottywildcat"]

Thanks for your reply Lavetnurse, always handy to hear it from the perspective of someone doing the course or who has done it, can I ask what you mean by the ANA has less 'vet involvement' than the VCA course? Im also quite shocked to hear that the modules are not sent to you in the right order and some refer to ones you havent even done yet, I can imagine that must get a bit confusing! Would you say the ANA course was really easy then apart from not being very well organised? If you've managed 8 out of 10 modules in 5 months ( is that in one unit? ) it must be not too hard. SharonSP thanks for the link, I will certainly take a good look at the handbook thanks :)

[/quote]

Theres 10 modules with up to 7 or 8 units in each module. Ive been nursing for a long time so have found it easy ( i have used my equine nursing experience for a lot of it ) which is why ive managed to complete soo much in such a short time along side working full time.

When i enquired about the course through CAW they required an indepth call with my boss and required them to sign a lot of work off. Theres no way he was going to agree to that - it would be too much work and hes not got the right attityde and as im funding it myself I couldnt take the risk ( ive since left that practice and it took 5 months to receive my p45! ) where the animal jobs one only requires a minimal amount signing off for practical modules which have been witnessed by a cc work colleague and any questionnaires ive had to get vets to answer have been done by my friend ( although his answers are very indepth ). I found it annoying rather than confusing.

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 19:49:31 GMT

The VCA course is expected to take approximately a year, although you have up to 18 months. You must be employed or volunteer in vet clinic, and a vet or a nurse is your mentor. The vet involvement is simply that your work in a vet clinic must be under a vet surgeon's supervision, which it would be no matter where or what job you're doing in a practice, so that's not really a big issue.

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Scottywildcat — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 16:46:19 GMT

Just looked at the ANA course through Animal-Jobs-Direct, interesting how they dont ask that you be employed or volunteering in a vets practice, that is different to SJS Training who also offer the course but do make that stipulation. Also Animal - Jobs - Direct have a higher course fee than SJS even though its the same course? Cant really understand why there are these differences. Looking at the VCA diploma's units and modules it looks much more in depth, and it is a total of 53 credits compared to the ANA which is only 32, so Im gravitating towards the ANA as I need to do this course in a year or less and Im thinking the VCA diploma might take a lot longer than that to complete especially as Ill be working full time. Anymore thoughts folks?

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Scottywildcat — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:37 GMT

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

SharonSP — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 08:35:51 GMT

I HOPE this has worked but I have uploaded the City & Guilds VCA qualification handbook to this post. It gives you lots of detail of each module and it's content. Hope this helps

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

lavetnurse — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 06:46:14 GMT

Im doing the level 2 Ana through animal-jobs direct. Its a distance learning course with an on line tutor. Ive been doing it for 5 mths and have completed 8 out of the 10 modules as well as working full time. The module I found hardest was the exotics one as I have no experience with bird or reptiles as we dont deal with them. There are some modules where you need your vets at work to be co-operative and answer some questionnaires and my vets wouldnt do it as they said it was stupid so I got a friend who is an esteemed equine professor to answer them for me instead. I do think the lay out of the course is daft and I seem to get my modules in any random order and its refers to using modules that werent yet done. I found my on line tutor takes ages to reply so not sure if this one would be helpful for you. Having said that there is much less vet involvement required with this one than the CAW one which is why I went for this version as I dont need an in house mentor. Only my practical assignments are done at work- all the rest ive done at home.

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Mark Hedberg — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 20:38:36 GMT

[quote user="Scottywildcat"]

Thanks Mark for that info, I was under the impression that the ANA course gave you an online tutor as well but I could be wrong, Ill look into it. I saw the list of contents on the CAW site but it didnt really go into that much detail as to how in depth each module is, it just listed the course content same as SJS do with the ANA. Is it fair to say then that the VCA course is more difficult than the ANA?

[/quote]

I'm not really qualified to compare educational difficulty; I believe the practical requirement of 600 hours practical work in vet practice is more than the ANA but it wouldn't be fair to downplay a course when I know both ANAs and VCAs who were quite satisfied with their respective courses. Plus, as I said, I didn't work on the accredited courses team.

I do know people on the distance learning team, and they're dedicated and highly skilled teachers, but I'm by no means an expert on the course itself. CAW clients who trained their staff to be VCAs seemed very pleased with the course; the feedback was always quite positive.

Cheers,
Mark

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

WelshyNurse — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 20:00:39 GMT

You do have a tutor with the ANA also

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Scottywildcat — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 19:39:15 GMT

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Mark Hedberg — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 15:34:37 GMT

You rang? :)

Strictly speaking, I ran CAW's CPD and events for 4 years until January 2016; I wasn't a teacher. I no longer work for CAW.

With that out of the way, there's extensive information on www.caw.ac.uk/vca in terms of content and there's a section there you can ask specific questions. The higher costs are higher due to your having a specific distance learning tutor assigned to you, as well as the higher practical requirements of the course. You'll have periodic learner reviews and you've got a specific person you'll be able to contact throughout your course for assistance. CAW is vey focused on student support, as that's how they are judged by the UK education authorities - colleges and schools that have lots of failed students tend to have very unpleasant conversations with OFSTED.

I'm afraid i'm the wrong person to ask about specifics on the anaesthesia units; I was more involved with the CPD side of things. However if you contact CAW through the 'ask a question' link or on their Facebook page they'll get you an answer.

Cheers,
Mark

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Scottywildcat — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 23:15:30 GMT

Yes the ANA is a distance learning course too, Ill be doing it whilst working full time in practice so it will be hard going but I really want to do it, and hoping my previous experience in practice will help me complete it within a year. I was just wondering why the VCA course with CAW is more expensive? Is there anyone else on here who has done these courses or who teaches them? Is there not a guy on this forum who teaches at CAW, he's a vet if I remember right? Whats the anaesthesia module like?

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

Kerrie Oakley — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 19:57:51 GMT

Having taught both of these I think the VCA is better.

Much more depth To the subjects. Both are Level 2 quals that will enable you to continue onto VN pathway if you choose.

CAW have the distance option which can be started at any time, you do need a minimum amount of hours in practice in order to train, as with ANA

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

WelshyNurse — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:36:35 GMT

I did the ANA early in my career, it was different then, had to sit exams.

A friend in another practice is doing the ANA now and finds it good. Not sure how in depth the VCA is but if you've been nursing a while, the ANA might not teach you anything new.

RE: ANA or VCA diploma, which course is better?

PSA-David — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:27:59 GMT

YESS......... I don't know what would be best for yourself, as I went from UNI to training in practice(nope I did not drop out or fail) ... but congratulations on having the Balls to go ahead with your training and going all the way... and not just saying well I will have experience in a few years.