Advanced Certificate in Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery

We have two main venues for our practical modules and CPD courses:

Courses and sessions marked as ‘Swindon’ will be held in our Clinical Excellence Centre, which can be found on the Ground Floor, Delta 1200, Delta Business Park, Welton Road, Swindon, SN5 7XZ.

Courses and sessions marked as ‘Sheffield’ will be held at Benchmark House, 8 Smithy Wood Drive, Chapeltown, Sheffield S35 1QN.
Find out more about our venues and facilities.

Start times vary between 09:00 and 09:30, depending on the course you are attending. Please refer to communications from your Programme Coordinator or Practical Course Coordinator, or check the online learning platform for details. UK venues open at 08:30 to give you plenty of time to get settled in.

You will have a short morning and afternoon break to get refreshments and an hour-long lunch break.

Improve Veterinary Education established the Pet Gifting scheme several years ago, which allows local veterinary practices to offer clients the option to donate their pet to us at time of euthanasia. Please contact us or speak to a member of the team at the venue if you would like more information.

Practical surgical sessions, held in the wet labs, will have PPE provided (surgical gowns). You may chose to bring scrubs, if you wish. For modules/courses involving live dogs (including ultrasound and physiotherapy courses), we recommend bringing a scrub top. No open-toed shoes are to be worn for practical modules.

Delegates attending face-to-face or practical CPD from overseas may require a Visa in order to participate in sessions. Please seek advice from your local embassy in relation to exact requirements. Improve Veterinary Education (IVE) does not provide support in obtaining Visas, but we can supply documentation to support your application. Please also note that a Student Tier 4 Visa is not applicable because IVE is a private education provider.

No, we do not sedate dogs used in practical CPD courses, including ultrasound scanning courses. The dogs we use are chosen for their relaxed and compliant temperament and if they show signs of distress, they are removed and allowed to settle.

The dogs we use are clinically fit and healthy. We are not able to source animals with specific problems and we feel that would be unethical. Learning to accurately scan and assess normal physiology is the best approach when teaching ultrasonography.

We are very grateful to the owners of dogs who allow their dogs to be used for our ultrasound CPD. We always ask the owners whether their dog can be clipped and make them aware of the benefit to our vets and nurses of having a clipped patient. However, clipping is sometimes denied, especially if the dog has previously had clipper rash, as many of our ultrasound scanning dogs are return patients. We find enabling the ultrasound gel to soak in by applying in advance allows non-clipped dogs to be used.

We do not provide cats for any practical ultrasound courses or modules, due to the stress this would cause to the animal through transportation and restraint. As it is not clinically necessary to scan the cat, it would not be ethical to use them for learning purposes.

We accept payments by credit card/debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and bank transfer (BACS).

It is not possible to set up a payment plan for short or practical CPD courses. However, vet and vet nurse/paraprofessional certificate programmes have payment plans available, allowing you to pay a deposit for enrolment and then monthly instalments. Details about the amount and number of instalments can be found in the pricing tab for each programme on our website.

Not all payment methods can be used for direct debit due to their technical characteristics. For direct debit you can use a debit card, a credit card, or your bank account number.

Before starting to pay instalments, you will receive an invoice detailing the remaining balance (e.g the remaining amount after deducting the deposit you’ve paid from the total cost of the enrolment).

Your instalment payments will be allocated against this invoice, which reduces the outstanding amount with each instalment you pay. There won’t be a separate invoice for each instalment.

Depending on the payment method chosen for the Direct Debit the payment can take more days to be processed. For example, credit and debit card payments will be charged immediately and might appear on the same or the next day in your bank account statement. However, payments charged on your bank account (BACS/SEPA payments) might take up to 5 business days to be processed.

There might be other reasons for the payment not being processed. Here are the main reasons:

• Insufficient funds on the account
• Transaction is not authorised by the bank
• Card used for the payment has expired
• Card issuer suspected fraud and declined transaction

If the transaction has been declined by the bank, please contact them to discuss the problem, then try again to make the payment.

• Bad internet connection.
• Amount you have tried to pay is much higher than your daily spending pattern so your bank didn´t authorise the transaction for safety reasons.
• You have exceeded the limit of the transactions per day.
• Missing Strong Customer Authentication.
• Insufficient funds on the account.

If you wish to pay for your CPD course or certificate programme by bank transfer (BACS), the bank details are at the bottom of the invoice.

According to our terms and conditions you have a 14-day cooling off period from the date your order was placed. If you cancel your order within this time, your full order will be refunded. If your circumstances change after the 14 days have passed and it is more than 30 days from the start day of the CPD course you would be liable for the deposit, and the rest will be refunded to you. If it is less than 30 days from the start date of the course you would be liable for the full cost of the course. We are sometimes able to offer the option to defer to another cohort or to substitute another person into the place on the course. Please contact our friendly team for more information.

• Full payment – the total amount of the enrolment price must be paid within 5 days of registration.
• Deposit + remaining amount – deposit for the enrolment must be paid within 5 days of registration, while the remaining amount of the enrolment must be paid up to 30 days before the course starting date.
• Deposit + instalments – deposit for the enrolment must be paid within 5 days of registration, while the remaining amount of the enrolment will be split into instalments and paid once per month following an established payment plan.

The cost of any CPD course or veterinary certificate programme, including applicable payment schedules, can be found in the ‘pricing’ tab of any programme page.

For those taking a programme that includes a HAU qualification (eg a PgC programme), the cost of the assessments is included in the fees. However, this only applies to first attempts – if you require a re-sit, you’ll need to pay HAU directly. Please contact our team for more information on how to do this.

For those taking a programme that includes an ISVPS qualification, the cost of the assessments is included in the programme fee. However, this only applies to first attempts – if you require a re-sit, you’ll need to pay ISVPS directly. If you need more information, contact our friendly team.

Yes …..

Selected GPAdvCert programmes provide 40 credits towards the postgraduate diploma (PgD) or Professional Master’s. For more information about progressing to these qualifications, contact our friendly team.

The assessments for the ISVPS General Practitioner Advanced Certificate (GPAdvCert) include:

• A Case Log comprising multiple relevant cases you have been involved with while studying on the programme
• A 90-minute Online Applied Knowledge Examination (OAKE) to assess application of clinical knowledge, for which the pass mark is 60%
• A 90-minute online Case-Based Scenario (CBS) exam, focusing on the management of one in-depth clinical case, for which the pass mark is 60%.
• A case report; a detailed written assessment on one clinical case managed during the programme, for which the pass mark is 50%.

Detailed information about assessments, including exam dates, will be given once you are registered on the programme.

The programme fee does not include:

• Travel and accommodation costs (if required)
• Assessment/exam fees after the first attempt
• Missed module fees if you haven’t notified us in writing more than 14 days before the module date

You may also want to budget for access to further textbooks, libraries, and journals of your choice, beyond those that are included in your programme fee.

The advanced veterinary certificate programme fee includes:

• Learning materials
• Access to the online learning platform
• Registration with ISVPS and exam fee (first attempt only)
• Access to a programme coordinator to support your learning
• Refreshments and lunch during face-to-face and practical sessions

These advanced certificate programmes are ideal for vets who already hold a GPCert or a Level 7 qualification (like a PgC, CertAVP or PGCert) in a related field, or have been working within the discipline for at least five years. More information about the subjects covered in each programme can be found by clicking on each module in the ‘modules’ tab of the course information. For assistance determining whether the GPAdvCert is at the right level for you, you can contact our team of trained veterinary CPD advisors who will be able to help.