First stakeholder group held to discuss new career development project

On the 3 May at the Woburn House Conference Centre in London, we held our first focus group for the new veterinary clinical career pathway (VCCP) project which had been approved by RCVS Council in November last year.

This stakeholder focus group considered the objectives of workstream one of the project which is developing a curriculum for veterinary GP specialty training. There were 60 attendees representing different areas of the profession there to discuss the need for GP specialty training, the potential impact and advantages to the profession in this new qualification and status, as well as any risks. There were also discussions on what appropriate content for this training should be and exploring potential learning environments, as well as the prerequisites for how the training might be implemented.

Dr Linda Prescott-Clements, RCVS Director of Education, said: "It was an engaging day with lots of interesting discussion about potential opportunities and benefits to introducing a new GP specialist role and suggestions for content for the training but also about discussions about risks, concerns and unintended consequences of introducing a new speciality training route. Detailed notes were taken during the discussions, and they will be presented to the Veterinary Clinical Career Working Group (VCCP) at its next meeting."

Over the coming months we will hold several focus groups in different formats (including online) to engage with as many stakeholders as possible. The next one is planned for Thursday 20 June in Edinburgh. This stakeholder focus group will consider the objectives of both the first workstream on curriculum development, and workstream three on developing flexible routes for specialist training.

The aim of this event is to gather stakeholder feedback and insights for a suggested purpose statement of the curriculum and the content of the GP speciality training. Stakeholders will also discuss mechanisms for supervision and the barriers faced by vets who feel unable to commit to an internship / residency programme in order to become a specialist, and how these barriers might be mitigated. 

The stakeholder event is open to all members of the profession but we especially welcome veterinary surgeons working in general practice, students, new graduates and early career vets who are interested in developing new accessible routes to becoming a specialist. We also welcome veterinary surgeons who were interested in becoming a specialist but felt unable to commit to an internship / residency programme.

For more information please contact Jenny Soreskog-Turp, our Lead for Postgraduate Education, on [email protected]