Animal Management Visit
Opportunity of a Lifetime for Animal Management Students
Showering elephants, entertaining lemurs and feeding hippos may sound like a strange way to spend your summer holidays, but for Animal Management students from Lancaster and Morecambe College, this was their dream break. Four students received European funding from the Leonardo Da Vinci programme to complete a month long work experience placement at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium.
The opportunity of a lifetime was seized by Natasha Wilton, Cathy Giddins, Yvette Farhad and Leanne Sharpe who had just completed the first year of a two-year National Diploma in Animal Management.
‘This was such a great opportunity,’ said Cathy Giddins, who spent a month working with her favourite animal – Monkeys. ‘The whole experience was amazing. There’s no way we could have gained this experience ourselves without paying out thousands of pounds.’
‘I always knew I wanted to work with animals,’ says Yvette Farhad who spent the month working with Hippos, Tapirs and Bongos, ‘but before this I didn’t know how a zoo worked and all the different opportunities available. I wasn’t sure what would be expected of us, but I really wanted to have the experience.’
‘It was a bit scary at first, but as soon as the other staff realised we were prepared to work hard and put in the effort, they were really friendly. I had such an amazing time and realised this is really what I want to do – I’d happily take a job there and was so upset when we left.’
According to Natasha Wilton who worked with elephants and giraffes, ‘The best bit was showering the elephants. I definitely want to work in a zoo, and this experience will really help my CV stand out.’ She went on to say, ‘I’d love to work with elephants if possible, and my dream location would be San Diego Zoo.’
Cathy and Yvette’s return to study has been supported by the Adult Learner Grant (ALG), a weekly payment available for students over the age of 19 to help meet the costs of returning to study or retraining. ‘I always wanted to work with animals,’ says Cathy, ‘it’s only because the ALG was available that I can afford it. My future plan is to work in a zoo or for the RSPCA’.
Yvette had previously started the course, but had to leave her studies and return to work for financial reasons. She says ‘I really regretted having to leave the course last time. This time the ALG is making things slightly easier so I’m looking forward to passing the course and working with animals in the future.’
National Press - It’s Zoo time!!!
