“You will only reach as high as you are personally willing to stretch.”
Joy Clements has had a deep love of animals for as long as she can remember. She has owned, to the best of her recollection, dogs, cats, rats, fish, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and horses.
As a child Joy dreamed of becoming a Veterinary Surgeon, but work experience with a vet in Year 9 changed her mind. “I wasn’t put off at all by the surgery or seeing sick animals being put down,” she reflects. “Vets need to have a good grasp of biology and chemistry and I realized that I really didn’t want to study these subjects to the level that I would need to.” Joy reworked her goals and set about becoming a Veterinary Nurse instead, a job that would still allow her to work closely with animals.
In Year 11 Joy seized the opportunity to commence a school based apprenticeship. The apprenticeship allows her to continue studying at high school and also complete a Certificate 2 in Veterinary Nursing by the time she graduates.
Joy is a firm believer that school based apprenticeships are an excellent way to combine the two worlds of school and further study. “I would never have just left high school to do vet nursing because I believe it’s important for me to complete Year 12,” she says.
back to topJoy’s school based apprenticeship requires that she train at a local veterinary surgery for one day a week over the two years of her senior schooling. “By the time I finish high school I should be able to walk straight into a job as a veterinary assistant or nurse – giving me at least a year’s head start over other graduating, high school students who want to work with animals,” Joy explains.
The Veterinary Nursing Certificate 2 does more than teach Joy about caring for animals. “I also receive valuable training in such things as communication, customer service, sales, book keeping and banking; skills that I can use in all sorts of jobs.”
Joy sees her life as being full of exciting possibilities and is unwilling to let her current interest in veterinary nursing dictate what the future holds for her. “In the end I may even use my qualifications to support myself part-time while I go to university or TAFE to study something totally different,” shares an optimistic Joy.
With the personal motto ‘You will only reach as high as you are personally willing to stretch,’ Joy could end up doing anything. However, she will always be grateful for the opportunities made available to her through the school based apprenticeship. “Never mind what else I may choose to do with my life, I will always be able to fall back on being a veterinary nurse whenever I want to,” she says appreciatively.
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