Animal care worker

Animal care workers look after animals in kennels, rescue centres, pet shops and sanctuaries.

Also known as: Animal care assistant

• Starter salary£21,000 a year
• Experienced£24,000 a year
• Typical hours38 to 40 a week

What you'll do

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.

Skills and knowledge you'll need

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 a animal care worker

You can get into this job through:

• a college course
• an apprenticeship
• volunteering
• applying directly

College

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

Apprenticeship

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

Volunteering

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:

• The National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Do IT

Some of the bigger national animal charities that take volunteers, include:

• Blue Cross
• RSPCA
• PDSA
• Dogs Trust
• Cats Protection

You may be able to find more animal welfare charities in your local area by searching online.

Direct application

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 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.

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.

Guides for this industry

• Health & Social Care: pay, interviews and getting started →

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