The animal keeper's education: basic course, main course, and journeyman exam.
How school and practical work work together on the path to journeyman status
The education to animal care worker is a vocational education (EUD) under food, agriculture, and experience trades. It is structured according to the classical alternating education model: a basic course at school followed by a main course where the student alternates between school periods and practical work in a business. The education can also be taken as EUX, where general education courses are woven in, so you simultaneously achieve study competence.
§The basic course
The basic course takes place at a vocational school with an animal trade line — e.g. Jordbrugets Uddannelses Center Aarhus, HANSENBERG or Roskilde Tekniske Skole — and introduces the student to animal species, animal welfare, feeding, hygiene and basic safety. Here the student typically works with the school's own animals and facilities before the main course requires a practical agreement with a specific employer.
§Access to the main course: the apprenticeship position
To progress to the main course the student must have a training agreement (apprenticeship) with an approved company. This can be a zoological garden, an animal research facility, a pet shop, a kennel or an equestrian business. Most students need more than one apprenticeship place during the education because the specialisations require training in different types of facilities and operations — though a few larger institutions do have exemption to accommodate the entire programme themselves.
§The specialties
The animal keeper education ends with a specialty and it's the specialty that determines which type of company the practice occurs in and which subjects are weighted most heavily in the main course. Schools typically offer the specialties animals in zoological facilities, laboratory animals, animal trade/pets, and horse keeper, although the specific offering can vary from school to school and over time.
| Specialty | Typical workplace | Professional weight. |
|---|---|---|
| Animals in zoological facilities. | Zoo, wildlife park, aquarium | Broad species knowledge, enrichment, audience communication |
| Laboratory animals | Laboratory animal facilities university industry | Hygiene, record keeping, legislation on laboratory animals |
| Dyrehandel/hjemmedyr | Animal trade, kennel, boarding. | Customer guidance, sales, species care for companion animals |
| Horse keeper | Stud, riding school, horse boarding | Feeding hoof care horse handling |
§The journeyman's exam
The education ends with a journeyman test in which the student demonstrates their professional competencies — typically through a final project combined with a practical and oral test where assessors and master craftsmen evaluate both craftsmanship professional knowledge and the ability to justify their own choices in daily work. If taken as eux the journeyman test is supplemented by examinations in the upper secondary subjects.
§After the journeyman certificate
With the journeyman's certificate in hand you are trained as an animal carer and can seek positions within your specialism but also more broadly in the industry. Many use the education as a springboard to further education for example to academy programmes in animal welfare or to specialised courses in specific animal groups.