Animal Attendant Apprenticeship

City of London Corporation

Hounslow (TW6 3JF)

Closes in 21 days (Friday 16 May 2025)

Posted on 24 April 2025

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Contents

Summary

The City of London Corporations Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC) provides care and accommodation to the huge variety and quantity of animals that pass-through Heathrow airport each year. The HARC team are at the forefront of enforcing the welfare of animals in transport and ensuring that the animal health and public protection is upheld.

Wage

£25,780 a year

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City of London Corporation staff can take advantage of the pension scheme. They also receive discounts and special offers for a wide range of products and services.

Training course
Keeper and aquarist (level 3)
Hours
Average over 7 weeks, weekend or unsocial hours working will be required as HARC is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Exact working days and hours to be discussed

35 hours a week

Start date

Monday 7 July 2025

Duration

2 years 7 months

Positions available

5

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you’ll do at work

Purpose of Post:

To care for the animals arriving through the Animal Reception Centre (ARC), maintaining their health and welfare and ensuring relevant legislation is adhered to.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

  • Receiving animals that have been delivered or collected by HARC staff from the aircraft, and assisting Animal Attendants with checking health and welfare
  • Releasing animals from containers into housing, ensuring that their needs are met, and assisting Animal attendants with checking compliance of their containers to international standards
  • Carry out daily husbandry of a range of species including domestic pets, non native mammals, reptiles and amphibians
  • When necessary, assist with treating sick animals under guidance from Veterinarian
  • Assist Animal Attendants with checking the paperwork of animals travelling by  air to ensure compliance within the legislative framework (Pet Travel Scheme)
  • Meet customers arriving to the centre and advise them of their animal’s status  and the process involved. Deal with enquiries from public and airlines regarding shipment of animals by air.
  • Assist the administration staff with day to day office duties
  • Maintain the cleanliness and tidiness of all areas in the work   environment
  • Assist supervisors with monitoring stock levels and establishing re order levels to ensure sufficient supplies are held
  • Actively seek to implement the City of London’s Occupational Health and Safety Policy in relation to the duties of the post, and at all times give due regard to the health and safety of both themselves and others when carrying out their duties

Complete on the job mandatory training as listed in the training needs assessment:

  • Induction programme (role specific)
  • Security compliance training (CO initial and refresher)
  • Manual handling
  • IATA Live Animal Regulations Training

Complete on the job optional training as listed in the training needs assessment:

  • NXCT X-ray competency (initial and refresher)
  • Airside driving (initial and refresher)
  • Animal First Aid
  • Scissor lift operation
  • Forklift operation
  • Banksman
  • Pets paperwork training          

Actively seek to implement the City of London’s Equal Opportunity Policy and the objective to promote equality of opportunity in relation to the duties of the post.

To undertake any other duties that may reasonably be requested appropriate to the grade.

Where you’ll work

Heathrow Animal Reception Centre, Beacon Road
London Heathrow Airport
Hounslow
TW6 3JF

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

College or training organisation

CAPEL MANOR COLLEGE

Your training course

Keeper and aquarist (level 3)

Equal to A level

Course contents
  • Work effectively in a safe and healthy working environment following current/relevant health and safety legislation and work place policies such as working safely with wild/higher risk animals and higher risk environments, working at height, working with chemicals, working with tools, manual handling, risk assessment, fire safety, relevant PPE
  • Demonstrate how the 5 welfare needs of an animal can be used as a basis to provide the animal with opportunities to display positive welfare, including providing a suitable environment and diet (including water), housing the animal in appropriate social groupings and protecting it from fear, pain, suffering, injury and disease and providing an environment where normal behaviour can be displayed
  • Prioritise more critical and less critical activities and tasks using scheduling techniques that enable them to meet deadlines and allow for unexpected tasks, such as an animal medical emergency, daily animal husbandry, visitor safety and staff absence
  • Communicate information clearly and within a timely manner with internal audiences such as colleagues, vets, managers and contractors, concisely, accurately and in ways that promote understanding – verbally as well as in writing (e.g. daily reports, diaries) adjusting and prioritising information and being mindful of the impact
  • Communicate effectively with external audiences such as the scientific community, general public/ visitors and media in a range of contexts including presentations, public speaking, visitor engagement, conservation education activities, customer service and delivering keeper experiences in order to educate about animal life histories and conservation issues, promoting awareness of the role of zoos in conservation and encouraging sustainable behaviour change
  • Actively listen, process and prioritise information, confirm understanding and react according to level of risk e.g. lost child procedure, animal escape, instruction from senior staff
  • Devise and deliver a talk/presentation using a range of appropriate resources such as audio/visual equipment, PowerPoint slides, physical props
  • Deal appropriately with difficult issues (e.g. visitor/internal conflicts and complaints) following workplace policies and procedures
  • Accurately record, retrieve and monitor information and write reports using a range of systems relevant to zoo/aquarium keeping within your organisation, such as diaries, ZIMS, Tracks, Excel following instruction to retrieve data or update information and follow workplace procedures designed to keep data secure
  • Use information from reliable sources using scientific nomenclature of taxa for a variety of purposes such as gathering information to share with the public and/or science community, researching information to underpin enclosure/tank design and husbandry plans including use of recognised assessment tools to identify species or habitat conservation status
  • Observe, describe and interpret animal behaviour (innate, learned, abnormal), including species specific behaviours for species in their care, taking response action where appropriate, including reporting to the supervisor or recording in animal records system
  • Develop, implement and evaluate (including safety evaluation) appropriate sensory and cognitive enrichment in accordance with enclosure/tank design and species-specific needs e.g. simulating hunting behaviours in big cats, stingrays and sharks
  • Identify individual animals through transponders, photos, ear tags, leg bands, individual markings, sex determination
  • Create a plan using the principles of population management in line with the organisation collection plan, such as the introductory meeting of a species, taking into consideration individual suitability (e.g. health status, age, social hierarchy, reproductive status), practical set up, potential issues and solutions e.g. introducing a males and females for breeding or forming single sex groups/mixed species
  • Interpret diet sheets and safely store, prepare and present diets in a manner which promotes species-specific natural behaviours, also considering individual needs (e.g. geriatric, disabled, etc.)
  • Evaluate diets and propose modifications e.g. to minimise the amount of uneaten food and contingent wastage, promote physical and psychological health and welfare meeting nutritional needs
  • Correctly follow procedures for waste management and disposal including hazardous materials, biosecurity risks, legally regulated materials
  • Identify which equipment, methods of approach, capture, handling, restraint and loading are best for specific situations and species, create plans for and make informed decisions to facilitate this e.g. fish species that are net sensitive or elasmobranchs that are trained to go in to a stretcher.
  • Show confidence in assisting with the capture and restraint of wild and high-risk species
  • Identify the most appropriate methods of successfully transporting animals, considering: species, level of risk, duration, animal welfare considerations, health and safety, legislation e.g. maintaining the temperature of the water for an overnight transport
  • Train animals’ using positive reinforcement-based techniques in various situations (e.g. target training with a single animal) and apply these techniques in the animal’s routine, monitoring and recording the results and giving feedback to the responsible supervisor
  • Identify, assess severity of and report potential health issues in animals in a timely manner. Monitor changes in health of animals and report their findings to a supervisor or veterinarian e.g. signs of ill health or injury, behaviour monitoring, body condition scoring, faecal scoring, food intake
  • Correctly collect, document and store suitable samples as part of veterinary health monitoring e.g. hair, faeces, urine, gill
  • Administer treatment following instruction from a veterinarian/competent staff member (e.g. administration of medication to an individual/group, parasite treatments, nail/hoof trimming) e.g. salt treatment, Aquatet etc.
  • Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different enclosure designs from the point of view of each stakeholder group (e.g. animals, keepers, vet team, visitors, educators, researchers) and propose improvements, if required
  • Select optimal enclosure substrates and furnishings and maintain them within the enclosure/tank e.g. clean appropriately, monitor condition and replace as appropriate e.g. coral chip and a siphon schedule
  • Identify potential and existing physical and bio hazards within an enclosure and associated areas, responding and participating in alterations/solutions where possible, reporting more complex issues to the relevant staff, all within a timely manner
  • Use, maintain and store a range of tools correctly, including electrical tools, appropriate to the workplace
  • Monitor and take responsibility of the health and safety of the visitors and welfare of the animals in enhanced animal contact situations, especially with higher risk and wild species, such as visitor encounter, keeper for a day experiences, walkthrough enclosures, animal handling sessions, taking action when required to minimise risks and stress
  • Comply with and support other staff in complying with emergency protocols e.g., animal escape drills, fire etc.
  • Carry out safe housekeeping regimes including the safe use and disposal of products used, cleaning of enclosures/tanks, public areas, Life Support Systems maintenance, and their associated hazards, frequency of cleaning based on situation, species and individual considering factors such as sent marking or removal of body fluids to required standard, according to species specific standard
  • Design and implement research projects; including a small number of variables or indicators, using tried and tested research methods e.g. single animal case studies of behaviour challenges
  • Analyse results and summarise findings using reporting tools including descriptive statistics, listing methods of dissemination of results including where relevant research might be published and considering the implications of findings for practices within their organisation
  • Work effectively in a safe and healthy working environment following current/relevant health and safety legislation and work place policies such as working safely with wild/higher risk animals and higher risk environments, working at height, working with chemicals, working with tools, manual handling, risk assessment, fire safety, relevant PPE
  • Demonstrate how the 5 welfare needs of an animal can be used as a basis to provide the animal with opportunities to display positive welfare, including providing a suitable environment and diet (including water), housing the animal in appropriate social groupings and protecting it from fear, pain, suffering, injury and disease and providing an environment where normal behaviour can be displayed
  • Prioritise more critical and less critical activities and tasks using scheduling techniques that enable them to meet deadlines and allow for unexpected tasks, such as an animal medical emergency, daily animal husbandry, visitor safety and staff absence
  • Communicate information clearly and within a timely manner with internal audiences such as colleagues, vets, managers and contractors, concisely, accurately and in ways that promote understanding – verbally as well as in writing (e.g. daily reports, diaries) adjusting and prioritising information and being mindful of the impact
  • Communicate effectively with external audiences such as the scientific community, general public/ visitors and media in a range of contexts including presentations, public speaking, visitor engagement, conservation education activities, customer service and delivering keeper experiences in order to educate about animal life histories and conservation issues, promoting awareness of the role of zoos in conservation and encouraging sustainable behaviour change
  • Actively listen, process and prioritise information, confirm understanding and react according to level of risk e.g. lost child procedure, animal escape, instruction from senior staff
  • Devise and deliver a talk/presentation using a range of appropriate resources such as audio/visual equipment, PowerPoint slides, physical props
  • Deal appropriately with difficult issues (e.g. visitor/internal conflicts and complaints) following workplace policies and procedures
  • Accurately record, retrieve and monitor information and write reports using a range of systems relevant to zoo/aquarium keeping within your organisation, such as diaries, ZIMS, Tracks, Excel following instruction to retrieve data or update information and follow workplace procedures designed to keep data secure
  • Use information from reliable sources using scientific nomenclature of taxa for a variety of purposes such as gathering information to share with the public and/or science community, researching information to underpin enclosure/tank design and husbandry plans including use of recognised assessment tools to identify species or habitat conservation status
  • Observe, describe and interpret animal behaviour (innate, learned, abnormal), including species specific behaviours for species in their care, taking response action where appropriate, including reporting to the supervisor or recording in animal records system
  • Develop, implement and evaluate (including safety evaluation) appropriate sensory and cognitive enrichment in accordance with enclosure/tank design and species-specific needs e.g. simulating hunting behaviours in big cats, stingrays and sharks
  • Identify individual animals through transponders, photos, ear tags, leg bands, individual markings, sex determination
  • Create a plan using the principles of population management in line with the organisation collection plan, such as the introductory meeting of a species, taking into consideration individual suitability (e.g. health status, age, social hierarchy, reproductive status), practical set up, potential issues and solutions e.g. introducing a males and females for breeding or forming single sex groups/mixed species
  • Interpret diet sheets and safely store, prepare and present diets in a manner which promotes species-specific natural behaviours, also considering individual needs (e.g. geriatric, disabled, etc.)
  • Evaluate diets and propose modifications e.g. to minimise the amount of uneaten food and contingent wastage, promote physical and psychological health and welfare meeting nutritional needs
  • Correctly follow procedures for waste management and disposal including hazardous materials, biosecurity risks, legally regulated materials
  • Identify which equipment, methods of approach, capture, handling, restraint and loading are best for specific situations and species, create plans for and make informed decisions to facilitate this e.g. fish species that are net sensitive or elasmobranchs that are trained to go in to a stretcher.
  • Show confidence in assisting with the capture and restraint of wild and high-risk species
  • Identify the most appropriate methods of successfully transporting animals, considering: species, level of risk, duration, animal welfare considerations, health and safety, legislation e.g. maintaining the temperature of the water for an overnight transport
  • Train animals’ using positive reinforcement-based techniques in various situations (e.g. target training with a single animal) and apply these techniques in the animal’s routine, monitoring and recording the results and giving feedback to the responsible supervisor
  • Identify, assess severity of and report potential health issues in animals in a timely manner. Monitor changes in health of animals and report their findings to a supervisor or veterinarian e.g. signs of ill health or injury, behaviour monitoring, body condition scoring, faecal scoring, food intake
  • Correctly collect, document and store suitable samples as part of veterinary health monitoring e.g. hair, faeces, urine, gill
  • Administer treatment following instruction from a veterinarian/competent staff member (e.g. administration of medication to an individual/group, parasite treatments, nail/hoof trimming) e.g. salt treatment, Aquatet etc.
  • Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different enclosure designs from the point of view of each stakeholder group (e.g. animals, keepers, vet team, visitors, educators, researchers) and propose improvements, if required
  • Select optimal enclosure substrates and furnishings and maintain them within the enclosure/tank e.g. clean appropriately, monitor condition and replace as appropriate e.g. coral chip and a siphon schedule
  • Identify potential and existing physical and bio hazards within an enclosure and associated areas, responding and participating in alterations/solutions where possible, reporting more complex issues to the relevant staff, all within a timely manner
  • Use, maintain and store a range of tools correctly, including electrical tools, appropriate to the workplace
  • Monitor and take responsibility of the health and safety of the visitors and welfare of the animals in enhanced animal contact situations, especially with higher risk and wild species, such as visitor encounter, keeper for a day experiences, walkthrough enclosures, animal handling sessions, taking action when required to minimise risks and stress
  • Comply with and support other staff in complying with emergency protocols e.g., animal escape drills, fire etc.
  • Carry out safe housekeeping regimes including the safe use and disposal of products used, cleaning of enclosures/tanks, public areas, Life Support Systems maintenance, and their associated hazards, frequency of cleaning based on situation, species and individual considering factors such as sent marking or removal of body fluids to required standard, according to species specific standard
  • Design and implement research projects; including a small number of variables or indicators, using tried and tested research methods e.g. single animal case studies of behaviour challenges
  • Analyse results and summarise findings using reporting tools including descriptive statistics, listing methods of dissemination of results including where relevant research might be published and considering the implications of findings for practices within their organisation

Your training plan

You will be supported to achieve the Keeper and Aquarist Level 3 Apprenticeship. Theoretical training will be delivered by the training provider on a weekly basis. Practical training and support will be given in the workplace allowing you to embed your learning in the working environment. You will receive 6 hours per week to completed course work within your working hours.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE or equivalent in:

  • English (grade C / 5)
  • Maths (grade C / 5)

NVQ or SVQ Level 2 or equivalent in:

  • Animal Care (grade 2)

Let the company know about other relevant qualifications and industry experience you have. They can adjust the apprenticeship to reflect what you already know.

Skills

  • Communication skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Organisation skills
  • Customer care skills
  • Problem solving skills
  • Administrative skills
  • Number skills
  • Team working
  • Patience
  • Physical fitness

Other requirements

Applicants will need to be 18 or over. You will require your own transport and be able to commute to HARC easily due to the nature of the shifts. Weekend or unsocial hours working will be required as HARC is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Security clearance will be required for this role.

About this company

The City Corporation with a rich history that precedes parliament, the City Corporation has been an ever constant throughout history adapting in order to meet modern demands of the City it serves, and is home to some of the world’s most striking modern architecture. The City of London Corporation forms part of London as a whole, along with the 32 London Boroughs who have responsibility for local government services within their local area. Based at the Guildhall the City Corporation looks after and promotes the City of London.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/animal-health-welfare/heathrow- (opens in new tab)

Disability Confident

Disability Confident

A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.

You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.

After this apprenticeship

On successful completion of the apprenticeship, we aim to offer a permanent role within the team if a position is available. Alternatively, we shall endeavour to secure an alternative position within the City of London Corporation. 

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

City of London Corporation

Apprenticeships team

CoLHR.Apprenticeships@cityoflondon.gov.uk

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000316851.

Apply now

Closes in 21 days (Friday 16 May 2025)

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After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.

Company’s application instructions

Please apply online and ensure that you answer the questions in the Recruitment Information Pack - please include your answers in the supporting information section of the application form. We are unable to accept curriculum Vitae (CVs)