The Pet Doctors Group has announced that it will continue its New Graduate Programme for Autumn 2010, an initiative which the company says has proved successful since its launch in 2008. The aim of the scheme is to appoint new graduates to work in a selected number of its practices, spread across the South East of England.

Brodie Collins, Area Manager at Pet Doctors, will be meeting final year students at the Bristol University School of Veterinary Science, the Royal Veterinary College in London and the University of Cambridge Veterinary School during February and March 2010 to promote the scheme and explain the firm's approach to supporting graduates during their critical first year in practice. Successful applicants will be shortlisted by August 2010 with appointments made by September.

With the economic climate causing many practices to postpone recruitment or reduce support and training for new qualified graduates, competition for places on schemes such as this is expected to be high this year.

Brodie said: "The first twelve months out of vet school can be the most daunting of a vet's career. They're suddenly thrust into a public facing role with little experience of communicating with clients or making a diagnosis. Many have limited surgical experience and even fewer have business acumen. They really need structured support and training to build their confidence and enable them to perform effectively both from a clinical and a business perspective. Mentoring is a key support tool so our graduates are all placed with practices where this can be provided regularly.

Feedback from our scheme last year showed that what the graduates we recruited most valued was working within a team which encouraged them to be open and honest so that they could readily ask for advice and help when they needed it.  We're all individuals and perform much better if we feel comfortable with the people we're working with.  Our scheme enables us to build on our graduates'  strengths and support them in areas which they find more challenging.

We provide clinical and surgical training but also focus on the development of communication and management skills to help graduates fulfil their role as part of a business team.  The graduates we appoint will each spend their first year based within one of our smaller practices, working as part of a small and closely knit team.  At the end of the first year, if all is going well, they will have the option to stay on and help grow that practice.

In addition to veterinary skills, we're looking for graduates with a good personality fit, a strong work ethic, a caring approach and ideally some level of business understanding."

For further information on the scheme, please contact Brodie at Brodie@petdoctors.co.uk

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