Become a valuable member of the veterinary medical team with the Diploma in Veterinary Technology. You'll get both theoretical and practical training in medical and surgical nursing, anesthesia, anatomy and physiology, radiography, dentistry, laboratory procedures, nutrition, pharmacology, workplace communications and more.
You'll get hands-on experience working with small and large animals on campus or at off-site facilities including veterinary clinics, stables, farms, animal shelters and rescue facilities.
This program is an ideal option for veterinary assistants and receptionists currently working in a veterinary hospital, who wish to obtain the Veterinary Technology diploma to improve their career options and earning potential.
Get certified
Upon graduation, you’ll be eligible to write the Veterinary Technician National Examination (VTNE). Once you have passed the exam, you can register in Canada and in many parts of the United States as a Registered Veterinary Technologist.
Get paid, full-time work experience during your studies
Due to a funding shortfall we are currently only offering the full time (2 year) study option.
Admissions Requirements
Applicants must meet the admission requirements listed below:
High School graduation or equivalent
Minimum age of 18 years by the end of the first semester (e.g. 18 years of age by December 31 if admitted to the Fall semester)
Biology or Life Sciences 11 or Biology or Anatomy and Physiology 12 with a minimum grade of C+ or approved substitution*
One of the following science courses with a minimum grade of C+ or approved substitutions*
Biology 12 or Anatomy and Physiology 12
Chemistry 12
Geology 12
Physics 12
One of the following mathematics courses with a minimum grade of C or approved substitutions*
Foundations of Mathematics 11
Foundations of Mathematics 12
Pre-calculus 11
Pre-calculus 12
The following completed admission forms are required to determine suitability for the program:
A short Veterinary Technology Entrance Questionnaire
A Work Experience Log and Task Observation Form documenting a minimum of 80 hours of veterinary work experience
*In most cases, with permissions, university transfer (UT) courses completed with a minimum grade of C- in the above subject areas can be used as approved substitutions for the required secondary school courses.
When there are more qualified applicants than seats available in the program, a selective admission process will be used to rank qualified candidates based on the academic admission requirements and suitability for the program. Those with a higher ranking will be offered seats first.
Prerequisite for Veterinary Technology courses
Following an offer of admission into the Veterinary Technology program, a current record of immunizations for the following must be provided:
Rabies Vaccine: all applicants must complete a mandatory 3 dose rabies vaccine series or provide a rabies titre test that is no more than 12 months old. This is a prerequisite for veterinary technology courses that include working with live animals. All costs related to required immunizations and/or testing, that are not covered by the province of BC, are the responsibility of the applicant.
Cost
Calculate your tuition and see the approximate cost of taking your program at 91 with the tuition and fee estimator. See costs broken down into categories including tuition fees, textbooks, student activity fees, U-Pass and more.
A minimum of 50% (31.50-32.50 credits) of all coursework must be completed at 91.
A minimum grade of "C" is required in all courses.
Good academic standing.
Up to 50% (31.50-32.5 credits) of coursework used towards a previously received credential can be used to meet graduation requirements (see the Credentials Awarded Policy).
Time limit to complete the program graduation requirements: 7 years. Any courses completed outside of that time limit will not be usable. Students may seek the permission of the Department/Program to complete a credential outside the approved time limits.
Notes on Program Delivery (i.e. cohorts):
Students in the full-time in-person cohort will complete the courses listed in the first table below for graduation. The allocation of specific courses to specific semesters in the tables below is provided for information only and is subject to change.
Students in the part-time hybrid cohort will complete the courses listed in the second table below for graduation. Courses will be a combination of online, hybrid, and in-person. For up-to-date information on whether the courses are online, hybrid, or in-person, please see the FAQ tab.
Course Requirements for Full-Time In-Person Cohort (see note 1)
1. Courses are listed in their recommended order, but the order may change according to the available course offerings.
2. For the clinical placement, students may take VTEC 1211 (VTEC Practicum 1) or Co-Operative Education to satisfy this requirement. Students who take VTEC 1211 will graduate with a total of 65 academic credits. Students who take COOP will graduate with a total of 63 academic credits and 9 additive COOP credits. The clinical placement is done over the summer term between semesters 2 and 3. VTEC 1211 takes place over two weeks and Co-Op is a minimum of 12 weeks.
Course Requirements for Part-Time Hybrid Cohort (see note 3)
3. Courses are listed in their recommended order, but the order may change according to the available course offerings. For up-to-date information on whether the courses are online, hybrid, or in-person, please see the FAQ tab.
Program Guidelines
Program Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this program and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the program, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
In November 2024 91 made a difficult decision to suspend the further intakes of part time students, due to a funding shortfall. We are actively lobbying the provincial government for funding and hope to reopen the part time stream in the future. Therefore, we are currently only accepting applications to the full-time cohort.
The Veterinary Technology Diploma program (VTEC) is now available in two formats: You can choose to study either full-time (in-person) or part-time (hybrid).
Graduate in two years with the full-time, in-person cohort (four semesters and a practicum).
In the three-year, (nine semester) part-time hybrid cohort, almost all courses will be online during the Fall and Winter semesters (September to April). Each year, mostly during the summer semesters, you'll be on campus for two to three weeks for in-person condensed lab courses where you'll be taught the practical skills required to become a veterinary technologist. You are required to work in a small animal or mixed Veterinary Hospital for at least four of the nine semesters.
No. You must decide when you apply which cohort you are applying for: the in-person, on campus, two-year option, or the hybrid part-time, three-year option.
There is a strict maximum of 30 student in each cohort. The differences in teaching methods means that many of the courses in the part time option are structured and sequenced differently than the full time, on-campus option and therefore even if there were space, it will be difficult to match up courses to switch between the part time and full-time cohort (or vice versa).
Yes, we have a small number of seats available in the full-time program for international students.Please contact 91 International for more information.
Our program is typically fully subscribed with a waitlist each year. You will not be able to submit an application after the January 15 deadline if our program is fully subscribed. In this case, applications that are incomplete at the time of the application deadline will not be assessed or scored.
Yes, you do. The program is academically challenging: the prerequisite course requirements are in place to ensure you can be successful in the program and successfully write the VTNE following graduation (Veterinary Technology National Exam).
All applicants must spend 80 hours working or volunteering in a veterinary hospital or clinic, observing or working with an RVT (Registered Veterinary Technologist) and/or veterinarian so that the Task Observation Form can be completed. Confirmation of hours worked must be signed off by a veterinarian, RVT, or hospital manager.
Please log ALL animal related work experience e.g. volunteer work in rescues, shelters or with wildlife, work experience at a dog daycare, boarding facility or pet store, farm work, horse riding etc. The more work experience hours and the wider the variety of work experiences you have, the stronger your application to the VTEC program will be.
Attendance at an information session is strongly recommended. Dates and times for information sessions are found here. They are usually held monthly September to June. Information Sessions are mostly held online through Zoom with some in-person information sessions.
No, we use a “Preferential Admissions” process. The applicants that submit their completed applications by the application deadline are reviewed and “scored” on all the components of the application. Seats are offered to the top 30 candidates for each cohort based on those scores.
Criteria reviewed for scoring include:
required high school courses and grades (higher grades = higher score)
additional post-secondary courses, certifications or degrees (please submit transcripts for ALL post-secondary academic qualifications, completed undergraduate courses, etc)
short answer questionnaire
veterinary hospital work experience hours (80 hours required, more hours = higher score)
other animal work experience or volunteer hours (optional, more variety = higher score)
After the application deadline all applications are scored according to education, work experience and the questionnaire. Most of the points in the scoring system are allocated to academic achievements and work experience. It is very important to make sure we receive transcripts for ALL your academic achievements (including incomplete undergraduate degrees), as well as a log of ALL your animal-related work experience. Once all the applications have been scored, they are ranked. Seat offers are then sent out according to these rankings.
Yes, there is typically a waitlist for applicants that do not receive the first seat offers. If a spot becomes available over the summer, waitlisted applicants are contacted according to their application score. However, we do not hold over a waitlist from year to year. All applicants must reapply if they wish to be considered for the follow year’s intake.
Yes, you can apply for the following year using the same documents, but you must let the Registrar’s office know that you intend to do this.
If you do not get offered a seat in the VTEC program and wish to reapply the following year, we strongly recommend you take the time to obtain additional work experience e.g. by applying for a job as a veterinary assistant in a veterinary hospital. Other alternatives include completing a Veterinary Office Assistant certificate program (typically 6 months). These are offered at many BC Colleges including 91. If you improve your application in this way, you will need to re-submit new documents to the Registrar’s Office to update your application.
Starting salary for new graduates in the lower Mainland of BC is typically ~$30/hour depending on where you work (general practice, emergency, specialty medicine etc). An experienced or specialised RVT may be paid over $40/hour.
Upon successful completion of the 91 VTEC Program, graduates are eligible to write the Veterinary Technologist National Exam (VTNE). Once this exam is successfully written, you can apply to your provincial veterinary technologist association. Once accepted you will be a (RVT).
Yes. You will be on campus for three weeks in each of the three years of the program (David Lam Campus, Coquitlam, B.C.). The first week on campus will be in February of the first year, all remaining weeks will be in the Summer semester (May to July). These are mandatory condensed lab courses where you will learn and practice your practical essential skills required for graduation.
Yes. There are four Clinical Placement courses for which you will be required to work in a veterinary hospital/ clinic, in the fall and winter semesters of the second and third year. Each student is required to complete a minimum of 120 hours work for each of these four courses – we recommend two to three days per week of work.
It is not a requirement to work in a veterinary clinic during the first year of the program, however, it may help with your studies, and will allow you to establish the productive mentor-mentee relationships that you will need for your second- and third-year clinical placement courses. You will need access to a compliant dog and cat in the second semester of the program, to practise restraint and physical examination skills.
You will need to reach out to your VTEC program co-ordinator and each situation will be assessed individually. We will work with you and your clinic to help support you, however, the program requirements must still be fulfilled to proceed in the program.
No. It is the student's responsibility to arrange a clinic placement, however if you cannot find a suitable placement we can put you in contact with local veterinary industry managers looking to hire VTEC students. It is important that the student discuss and confirm the clinical placement mentorship requirements with the clinic that they are interested in working with. It will be beneficial to work at the hospital/clinic before it is required in the second year to ensure it is a good fit for both the student and the clinic.
The clinic must be a CVBC/CVMA approved full-service small animal (or mixed animal) veterinary hospital or clinic and must agree to host the student for a minimum of 120 hours per semester (starting in the Fall semester of second year).
The host veterinary hospital or clinic must have a DVM or RVT (with a minimum two-years clinical experience) available and willing to supervise and mentor the student. These mentors will be the student’s clinical supervisors and will work with the students to help them completing their learning outcomes, assignments and video evaluations on live animals. Students can have more than one clinical supervisor.
If you're working in a clinic in your first year, clinic participation in your education is not required (although support is appreciated).
You must have a DVM or RVT (with a minimum two-years clinical experience) supervising and mentoring you during your Clinical Placement courses in years two and three. You can have more than one clinical supervisor; however, all supervisors must be listed on the Clinic Affiliation Agreement.
The clinical supervisors are not required to teach or deliver any lessons. You'll receive a course outline and you are responsible for reviewing it with your supervisor so that you are aware of the course topics that you are learning, equipment required and essential skills that you must complete to successfully complete your courses. You are responsible for discussing the essential skills assignments with the clinical supervisor, and the supervisor should assist you in finding suitable patients, ensuring you are is prepared for the skills assessment, watching you complete the skill, giving you feedback and signing any relevant paperwork that needs to be submitted to the College with the essential skill evaluation photos/videos.
You'll complete your exotic and large animal essential skills during the condensed three week on-campus labs in the final semester of the program in the summer of the third year of the program.
Please be aware that we do not have an animal colony and do not house animals overnight on-campus. Therefore, many of our Labs are off-site at various locations around the lower mainland, especially for equine, farm animal and exotic species. The College does not provide transport and students are responsible for their own transport to all off-site Labs, field trips and practicum locations.
Much of your hands-on learning will take place off-campus with our partner organisations such as animal shelters, farms and equine facilities, many of which are located in the Fraser Valley at least a half hour drive from the Coquitlam Campus and most of which do not have public transit options. Attendance at these labs and field trips is compulsory and you are responsible for your own transport for all off-site learning experiences.
Student loans: be sure to check your for both part-time and full-time programs using the .
When offered a seat in this program a non-refundable, non-transferable $350 tuition deposit is required.
Application documents
To access and download the application documents, visit the VTEC faculty page.
For more information regarding the full time or part time VTEC study options, and/or for questions about the work experience admission requirement, please email the VTEC Program Coordinator: vtec@douglascollege.ca.
Career Pathways
Registered veterinary technologists typically work alongside veterinarians in small animal (dogs and cats), farm animal, equine, and exotic animal (small mammals, birds, and reptiles) hospitals. They may also work in shelters, rescue organizations and wildlife facilities.
Other career pathways include:
Laboratory Animal Technician
Specialty practice – many veterinary technology specialties exist. For more details, visit the specialties page.
Practice manager
Industry representative/ product specialist
Researcher
Educator
Federal government (e.g. )
Regulation & facility inspection
For more information about career pathways, visit the website.