Animal care worker
Animal care workers look after animals in kennels, rescue centres, pet shops and sanctuaries.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
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
Working environment
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.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could become a supervisor or manager at an animal centre or in a pet store.
You could be self-employed and run your own business, like dog walking, animal day care or pet sitting services. You may be able to open your own kennels or cattery, or set up an animal rescue charity.
You could also use your experience to move into related careers, like veterinary nursing, or find work in a conservation or wildlife park. There may also be opportunities to go into animal training as an assistance dog instructor.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
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
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- volunteering
- applying directly
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
More Information
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
More Information
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:
Some of the bigger national animal charities that take volunteers, include:
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.
Career tips
Make sure to check online courses carefully. You may need to be working or volunteering with an organisation in order to complete the practical experience and assessment requirements of a course.
Further information
You can find out more about careers in animal care from:
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External links
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.