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Certificate in Client Care Services
FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE IN VETERINARY ASSISTING
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Price starting at:
$3495 or
$165/fortnight
Duration:
12 months
language:
English
Access to our Online Learning Centre:
Yes
Printed Learner's Guides:
Yes
Need to attend campus:
No
Schedule type:
Flexible. Study plan provided
DISCOUNT ON WORKSHOPS:
Yes
Real Veterinary Nursing Knowledge. No Clinic Placement. Start Anytime, From Anywhere.
The Foundation Certificate in Veterinary Assisting is a fully online, workplace-relevant qualification from ACVN, the same educators behind Australia’s most trusted veterinary nursing courses. It gives you genuine, clinically grounded knowledge of animal care and veterinary assisting across 8 subjects, without the placement requirements of a clinical programme. All assessments are completed at home, and you can start anytime.
This is not a light introduction to animals. It is a serious, knowledge-rich qualification designed for people who work or want to work in animal care environments, and who need the skills and credibility to do it well.
Flexibility is key — this qualification has no clinical placement requirements. You will complete all assessments at home in your own time, at your own pace.
You’ll graduate with the ability to provide good animal care to either your own animals, or pets owned by others. If you are looking at getting into veterinary nursing in the future, ACVN Nurses are well regarded in the industry, so you’ll be adding to your employability too. This course is a great option if you’re wanting to work towards being a veterinary nurse, but unable to commit to the full qualification and placement requirements just yet.
You can fast track gaining a nationally recognised qualification down the track – we’ll give you internal credits if you go on to enrol into a full qualification within 2 years of graduation.
This course is 100% veterinary nursing focused. Veterinary nurses are advocates for pet health and ensuring they get the best care possible. Whether it is general husbandry, providing correct nutrition, or even preventative health care – this course covers all the foundational aspects of veterinary nursing and animal care with the flexibility necessary to fit around your existing commitments.
Please note: There is no requirement for clinical placement for this course. All your assessments are completed at home in your own time.
Get started today
To be eligible to enrol in this course, you must:
- Be at least 16 years of age.
- Have successfully completed Year 10, or equivalent
- Have access to computers and the internet as this is an online course.
Please note:
There are no clinical placement requirements for this course. You will complete all your assessments at home.
FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE IN VETERINARY ASSISTING
For this certificate to be awarded, you must complete 8 subjects.
The subjects you must complete are:
- Safe Animal Handling Techniques
- Working Safely
- Anatomy & Physiology
- Infection Control in the Vet Clinic
- Small Animal Nutrition
- Veterinary Assisting
- Animal Welfare
- Enrichment
Enrolling is very simple!
- Click on the ‘Enrol Online Now’ button below.
- Fill out the enrolment form and arrange payment. (Instalment plans are available)
- Wait for your email regarding accessing our Learning Centre. Please allow 5 business days (we are usually much quicker as we process enrolments daily!).
Once your enrolment and payment has been processed, you will receive an email from us with all the information you need to access the Learning Centre. Your learning material folders will be sent after you’ve completed your Student Induction module.
enrol online nowWho is this course for?
The Career Starter
You’re drawn to veterinary nursing and want to earn a real qualification that builds genuine knowledge and gets you working in animal care, without the placement requirements of a full clinical programme. This course is complete in its own right, and if you choose to continue to the ACVN Diploma or any of our other qualifications, your completed subjects can earn you internal credits toward it.
The International Student
You’re based outside Australia and want a recognised veterinary assisting qualification you can study entirely from home, with no campus attendance or visa required. The Foundation Certificate is the most accessible way to begin your animal care education with one of Australia’s leading providers, and it’s open to students worldwide.
The Animal Welfare & Charity Worker
You work or volunteer with rescues, shelters, or animal welfare organisations, often caring for sick, injured, or recovering animals outside a clinical setting. This course gives you the knowledge to do that confidently: animal handling, nutrition, welfare assessment, infection control, and patient observation — no veterinary nursing career required.
Receive internal credits into our
Nationally Recognised Training courses,
allowing you to further your career when you’re ready.
Ready to Go Further?
If you want to become a fully qualified Veterinary Nurse, the ACVN Diploma in Clinical Veterinary Nursing is the next step. Graduate from the Foundation Certificate within two years and your completed subjects earn you internal credits, making your Diploma shorter and more affordable.
Explore the ACVN DiplomaWhat SUBJECTS WILL I STUDY?
All these subjects will give you internal credits that reduce your study load in our nationally recognised qualifications.
Safe Animal Handling Techniques
Safe Animal Handling Techniques is a whole subject devoted to the correct handling and restraint of the animals in our care. Although a large focus is on dogs and cats, rabbits, you’ll also learn about guinea pigs, birds and wildlife. Providing safe and low stress animal handling is a vital skill for any Veterinary Nurse.
Health and Safety in the Vet Clinic
Health and safety are vital aspects of working in any animal care workplace. We’ll introduce you to Work Health and Safety legislation and how it applies to employees, the basics of risk management and controls, how to deal with sharps, allergies, noise, dangerous chemicals and drugs, fire safety and emergencies, biological hazards and zoonoses. Then we’ll finish off with a closer look at animal hazards and manual handling when it comes to animal care workplaces and how you can minimise risks.
Anatomy and Physiology
Veterinary nurses care for a variety of animals with differences in anatomy that affect how we nurse our patients. In this subject you’ll learn all about the body systems and how they work. The focus is on placental mammals, and we explore the differences between different animals. You’ll also learn about other non-mammalian species such as reptiles.
Infection Control in the Vet Clinic
Infection control is extremely important in any veterinary clinic and this subject is structured to help you with understanding both basic and advanced precautions that are necessary to keep you and your patients safe from transmissible diseases.
Small Animal Nutrition
Correct nutrition is not only vital for the patients we nurse and animals we care for, but advising owners on correct nutrition for their pets is often a daily occurrence for Veterinary Nurses. This subject will ensure students understand what makes up nutrition, how to feed for particular life stages, how to read pet labels, diseases that are influenced by nutrition, and how to calculate energy requirements.
Enrichment
Providing enrichment is essential for animal welfare. This subject looks at the methods we can use for many species to enrich their environment and life. You’ll complete your own enrichment plans as part of your assessment.
Animal Welfare
This subject will take you through what is animal welfare. From exploring some animal welfare issues, various animal welfare models and frameworks, you’ll learn how to use some tools to assess welfare and put plans in place for improvement.
Veterinary Assisting
Patients are often kept in hospital and knowing how to look after them from food to bedding, exercising, taking vital signs, recording observations and knowing when to alert the Vet are all skills that form the basis of good nursing. This subject goes into detail on how to really look after your patients well, providing nursing interventions where necessary, and looking at the patient as a whole – not just ticking off a box that a treatment has been given. You’ll also learn about some of the more common diseases and parasites that we provide preventative care for.
HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT TO
Nationally Recognised Training?
Nationally Recognised Training (or accredited training) follows a prescribed training package, detailing what skills and knowledge a student must demonstrate, to have the qualification issued. Each training provider designs their own course content and assessments to meet this.
Non-accredited training does not have the restriction of having to follow a training package. Instead the education provider defines the syllabus to meet what their students needs, then designs their course content and assessments to suit.
Whether something is nationally recognised training or not does not indicate course quality, just whether it follows a training package or not. All our courses, regardless of whether accredited or not, exceed industry expectations for knowledge depth gained.
Frequently asked questions
When does the course start?
We will start you off in your course within a week of receiving your enrolment and payment.
You’ll have 12 months to complete your course work.
How much study will I need to do?
Each student studies differently.
Most students need to dedicate around 8-10 hours per week to their studies.
We’ll give you a suggested timetable to guide you through completing your studies within the 12 months allocated. If you need, you’re able to extend your course past this, but be aware a fee will apply.
Some students finish the course in under 12 months, you can too if you wish. The trick is time management. Put dedicated study time aside each week and it’s achievable.
How is the course delivered?
Our online student ‘Learning Centre’ along with our printed resources means you can study from where you like. Sunny day? Pop outside and study whilst watching the dogs play.
We’ll give you a timetable to help you structure your study plan. We recommend allowing dedicated time each week to ensure you stay on track, but it is self paced. So there is no stress of missing a deadline.
In the Learning Centre, you’ll find:
- Learning activities to help you remember everything
- Interactive learning modules
- Videos showing you how to perform tasks
- Recorded lectures to learn even more
- Links to upload your assessments.
In your printed resources, you’ll find all the reading material and references you need to successfully pass the course.
We also run optional workshops around the country, where you can get some hands on practice and experience at veterinary nursing tasks. Boost your resume.
What kind of assessments will I need to do?
Assessments are not only about assessing you, they are a valuable learning tool. As you complete them, you’ll learn more than just going through the reading materials alone and the feedback you receive will help you grow your knowledge even more.
Written Assessments
Every subject has some form of written assessment. We use short answer questions and scenario based assessments.
Our Nurse Educators will provide thorough feedback on your assessments, including hints and tips and further learning opportunities. Anytime you need help with an assessment, you just contact the Nurse Educators through our Student Assist options.
Practical Assessment
Veterinary Nursing is a practical job, so we also assess some of the clinical skills you’ll need in a vet clinic. But don’t worry, you can do these from home.
To ensure you graduate with the quality expected of ACVN Nurses, you’ll also submit some short videos of you performing vet nursing tasks, or do these live over Zoom with one of our friendly Educators. Nurse Educators will provide thorough feedback on your learning and skills. Don’t be daunted by the practical assessments, they are a relaxed form of assessment. We love it when students leave in their bloopers. We provide full instructions on what you need to include.
How is ACVN different to other colleges?
We’re about veterinary nursing. Full stop. We live and breathe it.
For us, training veterinary nurses is not just about money. It’s how we can ensure best practice nursing care for animals everywhere. We’re here for the animals.
At ACVN, you have a name not a student number. We get to know all our students really well and love sharing in your achievements.
We care about you and your career. We want you to be job ready, employable and enjoying a long career in veterinary nursing. Some of our graduates love us so much, they’ve come to work for us.
Our student to educator ratio is the envy of many colleges. Because of this, your assessments are marked quickly and the feedback you receive is specific to you and designed to help you learn. The Nurse Educators are available to help you when you need it.
At our college, you’ll be a part of a group of students who are considered amongst the best in the country.
Do you accept international/overseas students?
Yes! We absolutely welcome overseas students, as long as you are remaining in your home country. If you wish to come to Australia to study, you’ll need to find a CRICOS registered provider. These are the only institutions approved for international student visas.
We have had students in many countries including America, Canada, Singapore, Japan, China, Portugal, Cyprus and South Africa, just to name a few.
Please check out our Overseas Student Information page for more details.
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What support do you offer?
Email
Facebook
We’re here for you, for your entire course and beyond graduation. Once you graduate with us, you become an ACVN Nurse. The most trusted veterinary nurses out there.
Once you enrol, we’ve made it very easy to get help.
As a student, you’re our number one priority. It’s why we’re here.
Student Assist is our student support program and it’s manned by our Nurse Educators. This means if you need help – you’ll get it quickly. You won’t have to wait days or weeks for an educator to help you.
We can help you understand something that you’re not sure about, help you find things, give you motivational support, help with an assessment or feedback. Basically anything you need course wise, we can help you with.
Phone & Zoom
You can get a same day appointment with an Educator for help via the phone or a video call on Zoom. Video calls have the added advantage of sharing screen, and demonstrating practical skills. You can arrange help on weekdays between 8am and 5pm.
Send us an email any time to the dedicated student support email, and we’ll answer it when we’re in the office. We check this email several times throughout the day, so most emails are replied to in under 24 hours, but we do ask for 2 business days.
If social media is part of your life, we have an active student Facebook group for you. It’s exclusive to our current students and grads. Our Nurse Educators are also in there and are known to answer questions at all times of the day or night.
Is this course accredited?
The Foundation Certificate is an ACVN qualification, designed and delivered by the same Nurse Educators who train Australia’s most highly regarded veterinary nurses. It is not Nationally Recognised Training (NRT), which means we’re not constrained by a government training package, and that’s a deliberate choice. It gives us the freedom to build a course around what animal care workers actually need to know, rather than what a framework prescribes.
The knowledge depth and quality is the same as our accredited courses. And if you choose to continue into one of our NRT qualifications within two years of graduating, your completed subjects earn you internal credits, reducing your study load and your fees.
What about international accreditation?
It is important to note here is no official international accreditation for veterinary nursing courses.
International course accreditation schemes are just paid advertising and are not a guarantee of quality, career outcomes or recognition by official bodies. They’re purely a marketing tool. That’s why we don’t subscribe to that model.
Are there any credits into the Nationally Recognised Courses?
You will receive internal credits into our accredited courses (nationally recognised training) if you wish to undertake one of these in the future with us. Internal credits only apply where the subject is included in the course you wish to enrol in and only cover the theory components – you may need to complete practical components in your placement.
Many students use the non accredited courses to decide if they want to commit to the full accredited course.
Internal credits are available for 2 years post graduation.
Other providers may recognise your work with us through their recognition of prior learning pathways.
Am I a vet nurse when I graduate?
In Australia, a qualified Veterinary Nurse is someone who has obtained a Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing. This course can be used as a stepping stone to reaching that goal.
Can I change the subjects in the course?
The short answer is no. The subjects have been carefully selected by ACVN to reflect the aims of the course. But, if you have a particular interest in other subjects or short courses we offer, just ask us if we can package it in. Be aware there may be additional fees if you’re adding in more subjects.
Want to upgrade to a full qualification? You can!
Enrol in one of our nationally recognised qualification within two years of graduation and you’ll receive internal credits towards your subjects. This will make your new qualification shorter and cheaper.
start your career
start your studies with some savings!
interest free payment plan
Enrol now with a deposit of $495
Then simply pay
10 x $330/month or
$165/fortnight
That’s an affordable $82.50/week.
Total:
$3795
Important notes:
- Please budget approximately $90-100 for the mandatory textbook – BSAVA Textbook of Veterinary Nursing and $80-90 for Introduction to Animal and Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology. Both these texts are used for our nationally recognised training programs if you decide to continue on your studies.
- You are required to purchase your own stethoscope and thermometer. You may also need to purchase some disposable consumables such as examination gloves. Stethoscopes range from $30-300+, and thermometer around $15-20.
- Prices current from 15th May 2024.
- All prices include ACVN resource fees, tuition, and administration fees.
- Additional fees may apply if you do not pass a subject, you need to re-enrol in a subject for any reason, or you extend your enrolment period. Refer to the student handbook for other fees.
- Discount does not apply to international students. Instead we will cover bank transfer fees at our end, and send out your Learner’s Guides at no additional charge.
- For EU and UK residents only: Prices displayed on this page do NOT include VAT. VAT will be calculated based on your country of residence at enrolment time.
Notes on Payment Plans:
- Even if you have completed your studies, you’ll not receive your certificate until you’ve paid for your course in full.
- You are also responsible for paying the entire course cost, even if you decide to not complete the full course.
- Instalments will start from the month your course commences. Payments are by direct debit or credit card only, and to make your life easier, you can elect the day the automatic payment is debited from your account.
- If you fall behind in your instalments by more than 14 days without arranging an alternative payment, you may be withdrawn from the course. So it’s important to contact us if you are struggling.
- International students are not eligible for instalment plans.
As an ACVN graduate, you’ll be in the perfect position to land your dream job.
Our students are raving about our courses!
ACVN allows me to have a work/study/life balance as I can complete my course around the pace of my chaotic life.
Because of my studies I started as a placement student in a clinic and as a result of this I was offered employment.
I love the support offered by the nurse educators and fellow students. It’s very different to university where the information is thrown at you and lecturers are often too busy for one on one help. The flexible study schedule makes study and full time work easy to manage. I started placement in February 2016, the staff are amazed by how broad my knowledge is and how in depth the studies go. I’ve already been told that when I finish my studies, they want to create a position for me.
I’m middle aged with 3 adult kids and a varied work history. I decided when I turned 40 that I really wanted to work with animals. I chose online studying for the convenience of working to my own schedule. From my comparisons with colleagues studying with other RTO’s I think the ACVN course was much more comprehensive. My goal was to end up as a carer in a non-profit/rescue organisation and in March 2017 I accepted a job with the RSPCA client services across adoptions, admissions and clinic.
Based Outside Australia? You’re Welcome Here.
You don’t need to be living in Australia to study with us. We welcome students from all over the world! You have the same student benefits as a local student. There are however, some considerations you need to factor in before enrolling with us. Please read the Overseas Student Information by clicking the button below.
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