Helping graduates into animal-based careers

The popularity of working with animals means graduates face competition from non-graduates, career changers and volunteers - so how can they get ahead of the pack?

They say 'never work with children or animals' but increasingly students are enrolling onto degree programmes specifically designed for careers with wildlife, companion animals and captive species.

It's a tough and competitive job market, dominated by third sector employers who rely primarily on volunteers rather than paid staff, with a serious lack of graduate schemes and often low starting salaries. How can careers professionals support graduate employability for these students?

Providing care for animals is a widely held desire, and many people are prepared to work with animals for no financial reward and give up their time freely to engage in this pastime. This is bad news for those who want to be gainfully employed in animal professions, and leads to intense competition for jobs.

Additionally, animal science graduates are facing competition for roles from non-graduates, applicants of all ages including high numbers of career-changers, as well as graduates from alternative disciplines (such as conservation, biology, psychology, and environmental science).

Experience is just as important as academic study

At the University of Plymouth, a research-informed methodology was used in order to develop a strategy to support students. A wealth of information was gathered and used to inform the careers education programme for this cohort. Sources were:

• an analysis of the aspirations of students currently on the programme
• trends in outcomes data
• examination of LinkedIn profiles
• a series of interviews with graduates from animal-related disciplines and animal professionals across the UK.

It will come as no surprise to careers professionals that gaining experience was highlighted in the research as a critical factor for success. One professional working for the Dog's Trust said, 'It's no use to me if you can write a really great behavioural plan, but you can't safely coax an aggressive dog out of the kennel'.

A second, employed by the RSPCA, said, 'A degree does give the theoretical and unpinning knowledge to help to solve problems creatively, but this type of knowledge is equally as important as experience.'

With many professionals and alumni explaining that it is very common in animal careers to start in entry-level or seasonal posts, graduates who have invested heavily in time and money to achieve a degree can feel frustrated by the sector.

As one professional from the Blue Cross put it, a good way to help students to understand this is to explain that they must start from the 'beginning' and not the 'bottom'. They said, 'There is just one behaviourist per centre, 12 in total, and all started out as kennel workers. Don't think of it as the bottom.'

Working with animals means working with people

Most notably, people skills were mentioned as critical by almost every professional spoken to. There is a huge element of working with people, training people, educating people and explaining things to people within many animal careers.

Several employers mentioned that many animal skills can be taught fairly easily, but positive communication, listening skills, negotiation and persuasion can be harder to train in new employees, so those that already have these skills are much more likely to be offered employment.

It turns out that very few animal jobs are solely about animals, and actually many of them are as much - or more - about people. People skills are needed to:

• Educate the public or visitors to sanctuaries, zoos, and other animal attractions, which may also include delivering keeper talks and facilitating animal encounters.
• Work with animal owners, and adopters of rescued or rehabilitated animals. One dog trainer explained that '90% of the class is about training the owners, and 10% is working with the dogs'.
• Equip those people who rely on animals for assistance because of disability, hearing, sight, special educational needs or health issues, with the skills to manage and care for their assistance animals.
• Support and train volunteers operating within an industry dominated by third sector organisations. For one professional at Forever Hounds Trust, recruiting, training and supporting volunteers formed a significant part of her role.
• Help people collaborate for improved animal welfare. A professional from the League Against Cruel Sports described how critical people skills are when engaging with more than 100 organisations worldwide to protect animals from organised trafficking and exploitation.
• Provide information and advice about animal health products, nutrition and enrichment, and to drive sales of these products.
• Support people through animal therapy. Animals can aid progress with areas such as communication difficulty, PTSD, autism, mental health and many others.
• Improve career prospects, for example through networking. As one graduate said, 'The animal industry is all about networking. Networking helps you understand the industry.'

Investigating a specific sector in this way has proved an effective strategy to support students into a challenging labour market, and has highlighted specific barriers into animal-based professions.

Understanding this landscape has allowed a range of interventions to be implemented, and has changed the way that students are engaged with, influenced curriculum design and enhanced interactions with academic colleagues.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of HECSU/Prospects

Notes

• Stuart Bunderson, J., & Thompson, J. A. (2009). The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(1), 32–57.

Written by

Claire Guy

Careers consultant

University of Plymouth