Career Counselling: Diverse opportunities exist for vets

As you have taken up the medical stream subjects – physics, chemistry and biology in Class XII – and also love animals, a career as a veterinary doctor is an excellent option.

I graduated with an undergraduate degree in history in 2003. I failed at various endeavours since then but now want to become a PGT. I am currently pursuing an MA in history through correspondence since I can’t do it from a regular college for personal reasons. I will follow it up with BEd from a regular college. I want to know how much of a handicap will an MA through correspondence be for me while looking for a teaching job in a good school.

No longer is the vet merely the billi kuta vala doctor but with the growing respect for the value of animal life, veterinarians today are highly respected professionals.(AP)

The basic eligibility requirement for a postgraduate teacher (PGT) is a Master’s degree from a recognized university with at least 50% aggregate marks in your subject and the BEd qualification again, from a recognized university.

A degree through correspondence is not a handicap, so long as it is from a recognized university, approved by the Directorate of Distance Education. You should however, do the BEd programme from a regular college and get as much teaching experience as possible to ensure a good placement.

I am a science student from the medical stream. I did not clear the NEET this year and I do not want to try again next year. I love animals but my family says there is no scope in this line. What are the options for me?

As you have taken up the medical stream subjects – physics, chemistry and biology in Class XII – and also love animals, a career as a veterinary doctor is an excellent option. No longer is the vet merely the billi kuta vala doctor but with the growing respect for the value of animal life, veterinarians today are highly respected professionals. Careers for vets are also now more diverse.

A veterinarian can choose to focus on a specific species or group of animals, large animal like horses, cows, and sheep, or small animal like cats and dogs. Some veterinarians work for the government to educate and encourage livestock farmers to build up the quality of their animal stock, administer vaccination and medicines or artificial insemination and handle the control and eradication of any notifiable disease.

Wild life conservation, poultry management and health care, livestock insurance and rural development are also other areas of specialization for veterinary doctors. They also work for pharmaceutical companies to develop new medical treatments for animals, and in the holistic field, offering alternative and complementary medicine for animals.

The Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) & Animal Husbandry (AH) programme varies from 4.5 to 5 years, which also includes six months of internship. Admission is on the basis of an ‘All India Common Entrance examination’ (AICEE) conducted by the Veterinary Council of India.

Alternative fields of study include environment science, biotechnology, forestry and wildlife science, forensic science, micro-biology, marine sciences, oceanography and so on. If you are interested in working with animals,you could do a BSc Zoology followed by courses in Wildlife protection or zoological studies for a job with a zoological park or in wildlife protection organisations.

The Project Tiger in India, the World Wildlife Fund and other wild life protection organisations recruit zoologists, veterinarians and other specialists for conservation programmes and to study ways and means of preserving wildlife in the country.

(The columnist is director of Career Smarts and the author of The Penguin India Book of Careers Vol 1 and 2.)