Our Students

Hi, my name is Judith and for the last 9+ years I have worked for the SPCA. I was looking for a course on a topic I was interested in and that would help me with my work. A workmate of mine told me about the Animal Care (Companion Animal) course with Pacific Coast Technical Institute. I found this course both interesting and learnt much, these helps with my many foster animals plus my own. It was then offered for me to do the Fish Strand, these I knew less about and learnt much, again this will help with the surprisingly many varieties of fish that come our way. I found both course material easy to follow and the tutor very helpful with any queries I had. I would absolutely recommend both courses to anyone interested in these topics whether for their job or just to learn more about companion animals and fish.

I would recommend Youth Guarantee programme at PCTI to others, it is a great course with amazing staff and the students.

What I enjoyed the most about course was the comfortability I felt with the tutors and staff. In normal school it is easy to hate teachers because of the power they hold over you, but with PCTI Youth Guarantee it wasn't like that for me. They were nice, helpful and if you were a slow learner, they would always help you at your pace. I think they did that because they were once us, they knew how it felt to be the student and it showed in their teachings.

The staff were very helpful, supportive, and encouraging with anything really, if something was happening at home, or if you were struggling with your work or you needed a job, if they could help with any of those they would. The staff are great people who have helped many of us in some of our darkest moments. They are a big reason why I stayed at the course for so long.

Fun things I can remember doing are swimming. I absolutely loved it when we would go to the river or beach, when would have guest speakers that was always fun we always got pizza or something when that happened so it was great, also the house competitions were always fun it felt so good to crush all the other teams.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course! The tutor support was excellent. Our teacher, Dan, was always there to assist us with any questions we had. He took the time to explain everything in the best possible way.

During the course, I developed various skills. I learned how to identify bee queens, diseases, pollen, nectar, and honey. I also gained knowledge about determining when the brood is ready to be capped out. Additionally, I learned how to build hives, shift bees, and engage in activities like harvesting and identifying diseases.

Of course, there were some challenges along the way, particularly with the language aspect for me. However, overall, the course was fantastic.

I would definitely recommend this course to others. I had a 100% positive experience. The people involved were amazing, and we had the opportunity to visit beautiful places. I learned so much and had an incredible time.