Lakeland College has picked up provincial approval to offer Alberta’s first and only veterinary medical assistant program.
The one-year certificate program, with a target acceptance limit of eight students per year, will operate starting this fall at Lakeland’s Vermilion campus.
“The veterinary medical assistant program is a great addition to our currently popular program offerings, including animal health technology,” Lakeland instructor Dr. Terri Rowat said in a provincial newsletter. “It will certainly fill a workplace need.”
Alberta Advanced Education and Technology approved the program last week, a college spokesperson said Thursday.
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Students in Lakeland’s program will study animal care, animal restraint, kennel care and management, client education, office and hospital procedures, surgical prep, radiology positioning and lab equipment maintenance.
The course also requires a three-week practicum at a veterinary facility anywhere in Canada. Onsite training will be done at Lakeland’s animal hospital, with hands-on work in Lakeland’s labs, on its college farm and with small animals from the local SPCA.
Students graduating from the program will be qualified for work at large-animal, mixed and small-animal veterinary facilities, as well as animal shelters or SPCA organizations.
Program graduates will also be able to “ladder into” Lakeland’s two-year animal health technology diploma program, the province said.
The program already has nine students conditionally accepted for this fall, but interested students are encouraged to apply even if they weren’t on its initial wait list, the province said.
