Requirements to Become a Veterinary Technician

What are the general requirements to become a veterinary technician? In order to answer this question we need to look at it from a few different angles. There are both formal and informal requirements for getting involved in this field. These requirements need to be taken care of before you can begin working. While they vary from state to state, there are general patterns that carry over from state to state as regards work in the field. It’s good to get an idea of what these are or may be before you make your decision as to whether or not you want to pursue veterinary technology as a career.

Education

Education is one of the obvious requirements to become a veterinary technician, as it is in any field. Regardless of whether states require this legally or not, the field requires fairly extensive knowledge of medical procedures, animal anatomy and physiology, and use of testing equipment. Thus it is unlikely that an employer would hire anyone with no education.

The general standard for education in the field is an Associate’s degree. The majority of people working in the field have completed a 2 year program in veterinary technology that yields this type of degree. These degrees are considered necessary background for veterinary technician work.

It is also possible to get a Bachelor’s degree upon completion of a four year program in veterinary technology or animal science. This is not quite as common as a type of degree to have when getting involved in this type of work. These degrees may be helpful in getting certain more supervisory types of veterinary technician jobs and wildlife work. However these more advanced degrees are not really requirements, because people with Associate’s degrees are also hired for these latter sorts of positions.

Credentialing

Different states have differing credentialing requirements for veterinary technicians. Credentialing essentially means the process by which a particular state demonstrates that an individual has met professional standards and is legally allowed to work in the field. The credentials are generally awarded to technicians upon passing a state exam. The following are some of the credentialing possibilities:

Licensing

Some states require veterinary technicians to be licensed. Upon passing the exam the technician is issued a license to practice by the state’s licensing office. This license is then showed to employers in order to show that the veterinary technician is competent to work safely, professionally, and ethically.

Registration

Registration is another credentialing option. In this scenario, veterinary technicians are entered into a registry of practitioners in a particular state and this allows regulation of and networking within the field. After passing the state exam the technician is able to become registered.

Certification

Certification is another variety of credentialing. The state may designate a veterinary technician as certified upon completion of the exam. There is also a professional association called the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) that certifies individuals who wish to get involved in laboratory work with animals.

A word about the above: there have been many abuses of animals in laboratory settings and it is important that if someone is considering getting involved in working with lab animals that they know what they are getting into. Animals have been subjected in laboratories to large amounts of suffering for purposes that are often not even very important or essential. Lab work with animals is a very different sort of occupation than ordinary veterinary technology whose goal is to help suffering animals. It often involves subjecting animals to a lot of pain or difficult conditions or intentionally damaging them. People should only involve themselves in this sort of work if they are entirely sure that the experimentation that would be done on an animal is vitally necessary for some public health concern or advancement of knowledge that can be done in no other way.

These are the basic requirements to become a veterinary technician. Check with your state labor and education departments for the specifics as regard your areas. Since requirements are state specific you need to get all the relevant information about your particular locality when planning this career.