Student Vets Excluded From Commonwealth Prac Payments Scheme. ABC News 9/5/24

[Deeds]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-05-09/student-vets-excluded-from-commonwealth-prac-payments-scheme/103818536

[asal]

fascinating

 

so our pollies are happy to hand over millions to the rspca

 

yet refuse to contribute towards future vets?

 

so much for any concern for animal welfare

[tdierikx]

It's not just vet students left off the list... vet nursing and most other animal related courses have student work placement requirements also. When I did my captive animals (zookeeping) course, I had to to one full day of classes and two days of student work placement every week - which meant that was 3 days per week I couldn't work in a paid job for those 3 days. My vet nursing course had one full day of classes and one day of student placement in a vet clinic - taking 2 days a week away from being able to do paid work. You also need to factor in time outside of those hours to complete assignments, etc too.

 

And after completing both of those 2 year courses, I can work in those professions for minimum wage or less...

 

Funnily enough, some Sydney zoos are taking full advantage of the free TAFE student work placements, often with free student labour and other volunteer positions making up a larger component of their workforce than paid (read qualified) keeper staff. Same with vet clinics - some rely on the fact they will get a couple of free work placements to cover each day and so they have extra hands to get the workload done for less cost.

 

We won't get into the fact that most animal industry jobs are also mostly casual or part time, meaning that full-time positions are rare and therefore highly contested when they do come up. As a result there is also very high turnover, as people leave the profession as they can't afford to live on minimum wages and sporadic hours.

 

T.

[Little Gifts]

Well that's another kick in the guts or that industry.