Animal Care at QLS Level 3

This course has been broken down into 17 units, as listed below.

• Unit 1 – History and Background

This unit covers the biological and cultural development of domesticated animals throughout history, including the creation of species classifications, and the practice of selective breeding.

• Unit 2 – Safety, Health and Hygiene

This unit covers the important health, safety and hygiene practices that are necessary for the proper care of animals. It also introduces learners to a variety of common diseases, infections and other afflictions that can result from poor animal health, safety and hygiene.

• Unit 3 – Anatomy and Physiology

This unit provides an in-depth exploration of the key features, and differences, in animal physiology, going all the way down to a cellular level.

• Unit 4 – Animal First Aid

In this unit, students will learn about the basic skill required to administer emergency first aid to animals across a number of scenarios. This includes breathing problems, burns, shock, broken bones, cuts and lacerations, and much more besides.

• Unit 5 – Dogs

This unit focuses on domestic dogs, and their particular needs. This includes common canine diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 6 – Cats

This unit focuses on domestic cats, and their particular needs. This includes common feline diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 7 – Horses and Ponies

This unit focuses on domestic horse species, and their particular needs. This includes common equine diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 8 – Birds

This unit focuses on domestic birds, and their particular needs. This includes common aviary diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 9 – Fish

This unit focuses on domestic fish, and their particular needs. This includes common aquatic diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 10 – Snakes and Lizards

This unit focuses on domestic snakes and lizards, and their particular needs. This includes common reptile diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 11 – Tortoises, Turtles and Terrapins

This unit focuses on domestic tortoise, turtle and terrapins, and their particular needs. This includes common reptile diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 12 – Insects and Amphibians

This unit focuses on domestic insects (such as tarantulas) and amphibians (such as frogs), and their particular needs. This includes common diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 13 – Hamsters, Gerbils, Rats and Mice

This unit focuses on domestic small rodent species, and their particular needs. This includes common rodent diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 14 – Ferrets and Pole Cats

This unit focuses on domestic ferrets and polecats, and their particular needs. This includes common diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 15 – Rabbits and Guinea Pigs

This unit focuses on domestic rabbits and guinea pigs, and their particular needs. This includes common diseases and their treatments, as well as more general care needs, such as grooming, feeding and cleaning.

• Unit 16 – Wildlife

This unit looks not at domesticated animals, but at wildlife. Learners will discover the vast differences between caring for domesticated animals and dealing with wild animals in their natural environments.

• Unit 17 – Animal Welfare

This unit covers the various animal welfare groups and organisations in the UK and worldwide, and walks learners through the various pieces of law and legislation on animal welfare that have an effect of those who care for animals.

At the end of this course successful learners will be given the option to receive a Certificate of Achievement from the Quality Licence Scheme and a Learner Unit Summary (which lists the components the learner has completed as part of the course).

The course has been endorsed under the Quality Licence Scheme.  This means that Kendal Publishing Ltd has undergone an external quality check to ensure that the organisation and the courses it offers, meet defined quality criteria. The completion of this course alone does not lead to a regulated qualification* but may be used as evidence of knowledge and skills gained. The Learner Unit Summary may be used as evidence towards Recognition of Prior Learning if you wish to progress your studies in this subject. To this end the learning outcomes of the course have been benchmarked at Level 3 against level descriptors published by Ofqual, to indicate the depth of study and level of demand/complexity involved in successful completion by the learner.

The course itself has been designed by Kendal Publishing Ltd to meet specific learners’ and/or employers’ requirements which cannot be satisfied through current regulated qualifications.   The Quality Licence Scheme endorsement involves robust and rigorous quality audits by external auditors to ensure quality is continually met.  A review of courses is carried out as part of the endorsement process.

The Quality Licence Scheme is part of the Skills and Education Group, a charitable organisation that unites education and skills-orientated organisations that share similar values and objectives. With more than 100 years of collective experience, the Skills and Education Group’s strategic partnerships create opportunities to inform, influence and represent the wider education and skills sector.

The Skills and Education Group also includes two nationally recognised awarding organisations; Skills and Education Group Awards and Skills and Education Group Access. Through our awarding organisations we have developed a reputation for providing high-quality qualifications and assessments for the education and skills sector. We are committed to helping employers, organisations and learners cultivate the relevant skills for learning, skills for employment, and skills for life.

Our knowledge and experience of working within the awarding sector enables us to work with training providers, through the Quality Licence Scheme, to help them develop high-quality courses and/or training programmes for the non-regulated market.

*Regulated qualification refers to those qualifications that are regulated by Ofqual / CCEA / Qualification Wales

Paper Based Version

The course comes to you as a paper-based pack delivered by courier.

You will be given guidance through the Study Guide on the nuts and bolts of studying and submitting assignments.

Postal assignments cannot be accepted without prior permission from the tutor.

Online Version

Our online courses are fully digitised versions of the paper-courses, so you can study on any PC or smart device when connected to the internet.

As with the paper course, your online learning programme is completely flexible, so you can study at a pace that suits you.

All of our online course content is broken down into bite size chunks to make your learning more manageable and effective.

The course contains a number of assignments which your tutor will mark and give you valuable feedback on. We call these Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs). You need only send the TMAs to your tutor for comment, not the self-assessment exercises which are also part of the course to help you gauge your progress.

This course can be taken over a 12 month period but you can complete it as fast or as slowly as you wish.

You will have access to a tutor via email who will mark your work and guide you through the course and will assist you with any problems you may have. In addition you will be supplied with a comprehensive Study Guide which will help you through the study and assessment process.