I want to be a vet doctor
Nov 20, 2007
Career Guidance<br><br>Dear Jamesa,<br>I am a Senior Six candidate<br>doing Biology, Agriculture and Geography. Fellow students are saying that this is a useless combination yet my ambition is to become a veterinary doctor.
Career Guidance
Dear Jamesa,
I am a Senior Six candidate
doing Biology, Agriculture and Geography. Fellow students are saying that this is a useless combination yet my ambition is to become a veterinary doctor.
What subjects should I
study to achieve my dream? If I cannot make it in Veterinary Medicine what career can I pursue with this combination?
- Mawadri Moyo
Dear Mawadri, I have to commend you for having a distinct career direction before filling in the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) forms. In spite of your determination to pursue the career of your dream, your friends’ advice seems to derail you.
Career choice is a critical decision that you shouldn’t base on the advice from friends. Every subject on the curriculum has been put there for a reason and there is nothing like ‘a useless combination’.
Let’s look at a career in Veterinary Medicine a little deeper.
Veterinary Medicine:
Veterinary Medicine is a highly technical and specialised
training that enables you to diagnose disease, prescribe drugs and operate on animals.
Although veterinary doctors treat large and small animals, some vets specialise in either small animals such as dogs, cats and other pets or large animals such as horses, cows and pigs. Career in Veterinary Medicine goes beyond diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases.
Veterinary doctors (also called vets) are also trained to prevent transmission of diseases from people to animals and advise farmers on the proper care of animals.
Vets can work in the government sector at district and sub-county levels. They implement government policies in animal disease control and management.
Some vets also work in drug companies, vet drug shops and NGOs, while others venture into self-employment.
Training:
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University offers a five-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree programme.
The faculty also offers the following three-year degree programmes:
- Bachelor of Biomedical Laboratory Technology and Management
- Bachelor of Animal Production Technology and Management
- Bachelor of Wildlife Health Management Requirements:
The core subjects required for the above degree programmes are Biology and Chemistry.
Other relevant subjects are Physics, Mathematics, Geography and Agriculture.
Going by the above subject
requirements, your subject combination makes it difficult for you to compete favourably.
The programmes offered
at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine require Chemistry, which
you do not have.
However, there are other
science-based programmes
you can apply for using your subject combination.
- Bachelor of science
- Bachelor of science (Agriculture)
- Bachelor of science (Agricultural Land Use and Management)
- Bachelor of Agribusiness Management
As much as it is good to
have high career ambition,
you have to ensure
that you choose a career
that maximises your
skills and potentials. Seek
career guidance and
counselling from a career
counsellor to enable you
establish whether you
would derive satisfaction
from a science or artbased
career.
The best career is not
necessarily the one that
earns you maximum cash
but one that utilises your
potentials to the maximum.
Compiled by Jamesa Wagwau
Send your questions to Education Vision, P.O. BOX 9815, Kampala
Any question received in
whatever form is deemed
to be for
publication
Dear Jamesa,
I am a Senior Six candidate
doing Biology, Agriculture and Geography. Fellow students are saying that this is a useless combination yet my ambition is to become a veterinary doctor.
What subjects should I
study to achieve my dream? If I cannot make it in Veterinary Medicine what career can I pursue with this combination?
- Mawadri Moyo
Dear Mawadri, I have to commend you for having a distinct career direction before filling in the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) forms. In spite of your determination to pursue the career of your dream, your friends’ advice seems to derail you.
Career choice is a critical decision that you shouldn’t base on the advice from friends. Every subject on the curriculum has been put there for a reason and there is nothing like ‘a useless combination’.
Let’s look at a career in Veterinary Medicine a little deeper.
Veterinary Medicine:
Veterinary Medicine is a highly technical and specialised
training that enables you to diagnose disease, prescribe drugs and operate on animals.
Although veterinary doctors treat large and small animals, some vets specialise in either small animals such as dogs, cats and other pets or large animals such as horses, cows and pigs. Career in Veterinary Medicine goes beyond diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases.
Veterinary doctors (also called vets) are also trained to prevent transmission of diseases from people to animals and advise farmers on the proper care of animals.
Vets can work in the government sector at district and sub-county levels. They implement government policies in animal disease control and management.
Some vets also work in drug companies, vet drug shops and NGOs, while others venture into self-employment.
Training:
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University offers a five-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree programme.
The faculty also offers the following three-year degree programmes:
- Bachelor of Biomedical Laboratory Technology and Management
- Bachelor of Animal Production Technology and Management
- Bachelor of Wildlife Health Management Requirements:
The core subjects required for the above degree programmes are Biology and Chemistry.
Other relevant subjects are Physics, Mathematics, Geography and Agriculture.
Going by the above subject
requirements, your subject combination makes it difficult for you to compete favourably.
The programmes offered
at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine require Chemistry, which
you do not have.
However, there are other
science-based programmes
you can apply for using your subject combination.
- Bachelor of science
- Bachelor of science (Agriculture)
- Bachelor of science (Agricultural Land Use and Management)
- Bachelor of Agribusiness Management
As much as it is good to
have high career ambition,
you have to ensure
that you choose a career
that maximises your
skills and potentials. Seek
career guidance and
counselling from a career
counsellor to enable you
establish whether you
would derive satisfaction
from a science or artbased
career.
The best career is not
necessarily the one that
earns you maximum cash
but one that utilises your
potentials to the maximum.
Compiled by Jamesa Wagwau
Send your questions to Education Vision, P.O. BOX 9815, Kampala
Any question received in
whatever form is deemed
to be for
publication