Working with animals, great and small
Animal care and veterinary nursing training provider, Lite Ltd, has received the only outstanding grade for overall effectiveness given by Ofsted to a trainer in this field. We gave an outstanding rating for the quality of provision, leadership and management. According to the inspector Bryan Davies, ‘Lite has a very clear focus and mission statement shared by everyone in the company and that’s the key to their success. They have a very strong pride in what they’re doing, attention to detail, and some highly effective team work.'
Based in the north west of England, Lite was established in 1985 and has built long-term relationships with many employers in the region.
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The majority of its learners come from Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire. It currently has 31 learners on veterinary nursing programmes, 28 on animal care programmes and 15 on horse care programmes. Lite has a manager, two administrators, one qualified counsellor, and five full-time and four part-time staff who carry out training, assessment and verification. |
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The NVQ programme involves placement with an official training practice registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and offers classroom-based training for one day a week. So, if you visit Nantwich Veterinary Hospital, one of the largest and best-equipped private veterinary hospitals in Europe, you’ll see nursing staff training in partnership with Lite. The Ofsted inspection report says Lite ‘has excellent working relationships with workplace supervisors and assessors, and provide them with good guidance and support'. On a typical day trainees learn about x-rays and surgery, deal with concerned owners, and care for their patients. |
An hour’s drive from Nantwich more Lite trainees are working at Rose Tree farm Boarding Kennels, near Widnes. Here they have a hydrotherapy pool where five minutes of paddling for injured animals is the equivalent to a five-mile walk, but without any stresses and strains on the joints. And in nearby Warrington more trainees are working with the ponies and horses of Bold Heath Equestrian Centre, which are used to instruct riders of all ages and abilities.
Off-the-job training takes place at Lite’s head office in St Helens. Here, the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. Learners’ needs are carefully monitored from the very beginning. Learners with dyslexia, who have often struggled through school without ever being diagnosed until assessed by Lite, are provided with laptops with voice-recognition systems and specialist spell check software. Learners have good general support and can telephone their assessors outside normal working hours. Lite also has a qualified counsellor offering advice on problems ranging from exam nerves to domestic worries.
We learn how to do practical things at work, but at Lite we learn why we have to do them. The classes are fun and everybody gets on well with each other. It’s not like being at school or college. Trainee veterinary nurse Nick Watts
Lite’s founder Jackie Shopland-Reed says she’s seen too much ‘dull teaching’ in work-based learning which made her determined to continually invest in her own provision to make it ‘fun and vibrant’. The result is an extensive range of equipment, including a £3,000 hi-tech mannequin of a dog, which is used to practise many techniques from bandaging to resuscitation. And when it comes to practising on live animals there’s no better than her Burnese mountain dog, Eve. She says, ‘We’re very proud of our track record and the achievement of our trainees, many of whom have gone on to become head nurses or supervisors or start their own businesses.’
The full inspection report on Lite Ltd can be downloaded from:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/portal/site/Internet/menuitem.7c7b38b14d870c7bb1890a01637046a0/?urn=50159&providerCategoryID=268435456
