You could take a college course in animal care to get some of the skills and knowledge needed in this job, for example:

• animal care
• practical small animal care skills
• animal management
• pet care in retail
• T Level in Animal Care and Management

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

• 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths for a T Level

You could apply for a place on an apprenticeship, such as:

• Animal Care and Welfare Assistant Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship
• Animal Care and Welfare Manager Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship

These take between 1 and 2 years to complete, and combine work-based training with classroom study.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship

Volunteering is a good way to get experience of working with animals before you start looking for a job.

You can search for volunteering opportunities on sites like:

• The National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Do IT

Some of the bigger national animal charities that take volunteers, include:

• Blue Cross
• RSPCA
• PDSA
• Dogs Trust
• Cats Protection

You may be able to find more animal welfare charities in your local area by searching online.

You could apply directly for jobs. You may not need formal qualifications to start but it it will help if you've got some experience of working with animals.

For pet shop assistant roles, a background in retail or customer service could be useful.

You'll need:

• customer service skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• the ability to use your initiative
• to be flexible and open to change
• excellent verbal communication skills
• patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• the ability to work well with others
• active listening skills
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

As an animal care worker, you could:

• check animals daily and monitor their health and behaviour
• clean out kennels, enclosures, cages or stables
• prepare food and help out at feeding times
• clean and groom animals
• exercise animals regularly
• look after sick or distressed animals
• update records and deal with questions from colleagues or the public

In a pet shop, you would also:

• give advice to customers on products and pet care
• manage product displays
• maintain stock levels and deal with deliveries
• check water temperatures and chemical balance in fish tanks
• handle payments

You could work at an animal welfare centre, at a wildlife park, in kennels or at a store.

Your working environment may be outdoors some of the time, physically demanding and dirty.