Staff Development

The SPCA is highly committed to providing both internal and external courses for its staff. Since 2001 all veterinary nursing staff have studied an internationally recognised Australian Veterinary Nursing Course. Originally lectures were provided on a weekly basis out of clinic hours by SPCA vets to assist staff taking the course. In 2006/07 we extended the level of veterinary nurse training offered to our staff to include Certificate II and Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing to further improve on the quality of our service.

From August 2007 we also enhanced our training to include frontline customer service and welfare staff with the introduction of a Certificate I in Animal Studies.

Ms. Becky Lin (Manager of Veterinary Nurse Training and Development) returned to Hong Kong in February 2005 having spent 2 years in the UK studying veterinary nursing at the College of Animal Welfare in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. She was at the time the first local veterinary nurse to attain this qualification. Becky is heavily involved in formulating internal courses for kennel keepers, inspectors and customer service staff as well as overseeing the training program for our veterinary nurses.

We also organize in-house training for our veterinary surgeons to ensure their knowledge is kept up to date with the latest developments in veterinary medicine, recent courses have included veterinary ultrasonography, endoscopy and bronchoscopy and internal medicine seminars given by international specialists. This training has also been opened up to the wider veterinary profession of Hong Kong through cooperation with the Hong Kong Veterinary Association.

In addition to our commitment to educating staff we also accept veterinary and school students for work experience and in-house observation (on average over 30 students/year). We are a recognised training practice for several UK, New Zealand and Australian veterinary schools including Sydney, Melbourne, Murdoch, Massey, London, Edinburgh and Nottingham University.