Animal Care / Animal Care Assistant

Special Features

Technology Enhanced Learning with iPads

Utilising technology to deliver coursework and enhance teaching and learning is particularly important for scientific subjects.  DFEi’s Animal Healthcare department has been successfully using iPads since 2015 to help their students gain a fuller understanding of their subject matter through the multimedia feature of the iPad.  This innovative practice has proved to be very effective and is now a central aspect of the learning experience for all Animal Healthcare students in DFEi.

All DFEi students are provided with an M365 account, which gives them access to the tools and resources needed to deliver assessment work while attending their course. M365 Apps include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and OneDrive.

Work Experience

Students will be required to undertake a period of work placement in an organisation connected to their vocational area during the academic year.  Work Experience is mandatory for all of our full-time Level 5 courses. Students are required to source their own work placement but will be assisted in this by the work experience teacher.  The work placement is usually for a period of 10 days or a minimum of 60 hours.  Students usually find the work experience element of the course to be invaluable and should bear in mind that a successful work placement can sometimes lead to further opportunities.

Additional Information

Assessment

Assessment techniques will be used to assess the knowledge and skills that students will have achieved on successful completion of modules:

• Student Record
• Portfolio/Collection of Work
• Assignments
• Examinations – Written or Practical
• Project

A full major award is granted on passing the relevant eight components. On successful completion of each component, you will be awarded a pass, a merit or a distinction grade. See www.qqi.ie for more details.

Progression Opportunities

DFEi: Graduates who have completed and achieved the full Level 5 Animal Care Award may progress to the Level 6 QQI Advanced Certificate in Animal Healthcare at DFEi.

Elsewhere: Graduates are eligible to apply through the CAO and/or the Higher Education Links Scheme for entry to year one of a range of higher certificate and degree programmes, at Universities, Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities using their full QQI Level 5 major award. Places are not guaranteed in these Institutes and are subject to students meeting certain criteria.  It is the students’ responsibility to consult with the relevant HEI for information on the admissions process and any specific entry requirements. Students may also refer to the individual HEI prospectus or may also refer to the QQI FET section of the CAO website. www.cao.ie

There are progression options in a wide range of areas including general science, veterinary nursing, agricultural science, marine biology, and many other related areas.

Whilst many of Our 2021 graduates of this course have progressed onto the Level 6 Award in Animal Science at DFEi, many other graduates of this course have progressed onto UCD, TUS Athlone, and Dundalk IT.  For example, four of our graduates got into Veterinary Science and three got into Agricultural Science in UCD. Others have progressed directly into employment in Animal Healthcare related areas.

Examples of CAO progression opportunities are listed below.