Veterinary Technician Degree and Certification

Becoming a veterinary technician, like other fields, requires education and training. While this is a field that someone can get into fairly easily, there are definite steps you need to take educationally and in terms of credentialing in order to do so. You need to be familiar with what these steps are so you can make the right decisions. Getting a veterinarian degree and certification is something you will have to do before you begin to work in this career area. The following are the basic options and steps on this level for getting into the field.

Which Degree Should you Get?

The first step in getting your veterinary technician degree and certification is the degree. There are two basic options as concerns the type of degree you may wish to get when becoming a veterinary technician. These options depend generally on factors such as how much time and money you have and how in depth you want to go professionally.

Associate’s Degree

The most common option for veterinary technicians is to get an Associate’s degree. This is a two year degree. Associate’s degree programs in veterinary technology are offered primarily at community colleges and technical schools. These institutions can be found all over the country and there is probably one within some kind of reasonable distance of where you live. These programs may also be offered by schools that specialize in veterinary science or animal science in general. These are a bit less common, but check with your state’s education department and/or do online searches and you can probably find these types of schools.

Bachelor’s Degree

The other main educational route to go is the Bachelor’s degree route. Bachelor’s degrees are usually granted, as most people know, after four years of study. Programs in veterinary technology or some more general designation such as animal science that last four years are somewhat less common than associate degrees in this area, but they can be found. They are offered at four years institutions such as regular academic colleges, technical schools that offer four year degrees, and veterinarian schools.

Certification

The veterinarian technician degree and certification generally go together. That is to say, after you’ve been educated, the state in which you plan to work will have some kind of credentialing process you need to fulfill before being eligible for employment. This credentialing process varies from state, and may be called certification, registration, or licensing. However the basic requirement for being certified, registered, or licensed is essentially the same from state to state – you need to pass an examination in your state. Many states use a standardized exam called the National Veterinarian Technician (NVT) exam.

Since the process for taking this exam does vary by state, your best bet is to check with your state’s education department for specifics on qualifying for and taking this exam. Upon its successful completion, you are granted certification, registration, a license, or some combination of these.

AALAS Certification

A professional organization called the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) is one that offers certifications and which those interested in work with laboratory research involving animals are recommended to join. This is a fairly different branch of the veterinary technician field. You should be aware that experimentation on animals does not always have the animal’s best interests in mind, in fact usually does not. There have also been many abuses in the area of laboratory research with animals suffering from cruel testing that is largely unnecessary. So if you do get involved in this field at all, look very in depth at what it involves and whether the types of work you may be doing are really required and are ethical. Much animal testing can be duplicated with computer models, and testing on animals for profit driven motives is immoral from the outset. So make very sure you know what you’re getting into.

So as you can see there are a few options as regards getting your veterinary technician degree and certification and the process varies by location. But the basics are the same and are the first step to getting involved in this interesting career.