Student wins pet hospital work experience prize

A Level student Elan Daniels is set to spend a week at Swansea’s Pet Hospital after winning a national work experience competition.

Elan is studying maths, geography, chemistry and biology at Gower College Swansea and is also a part of the medical sciences and vet sciences tutorial group. She was selected as the Swansea area’s winner after entering the PDSA’s Veterinary Student Work Experience competition.

She will spend each day of her work experience programme in July with a different member of staff, from the vets and vet nurses to the animal care assistants and non-clinical staff. That way, Elan will gain as broad an understanding as possible of the work of a busy veterinary hospital.

“Elan is a very enthusiastic student and we’re delighted that she has this opportunity to spend five days this summer working at the pet hospital,” says lecturer Stewart McConnell, who supported her application by providing a reference.

“Last year, PDSA treated 470,000 sick and injured pets whose owners might not otherwise have been able to afford proper veterinary care,” says Volunteering Projects Officer Mimi Stanwood. “As the largest veterinary charity in the UK, we are dedicated to inspiring the next generation of veterinary professionals and believe that truly hands-on work experience is the best way of achieving this.”

“We hoped that our student work experience competition would attract the best of the best and we certainly weren’t disappointed! The calibre of applicants far exceeded our expectations and selecting a winner really was a daunting task. However, after reading Elan’s stellar application, we’re 100% certain that we picked the best of the bunch and are so glad to have such a fantastic candidate on board at our Swansea Pet Hospital."