Three leading industry organisations – iPET Nework, The Groomers Spotlight and BIGA – are teaming up to promote courses offering high quality training to people working in the animal care and veterinary science sector with initial focus on the pet grooming sector.
The move aims to give existing groomers opportunities to access continuous professional development to enhance existing skills and learn new ones. As iPET Network are an Ofqual regulated Awarding Organisation, learners can be assured of the quality mark to continue their learning journey on the job.
Having the three leading organisations in the pet grooming industry combine forces in this way is unprecedented and groundbreaking, and demonstrates a clear mission by the industry to strive for excellence by uniting together.
Heidi Anderton of BIGA hailed the partnership, she said: "It is so wonderful to see this unity in the industry, supporting qualifications and awards.
"BIGA will be assisting in creating these programmes and offering them to all members. The important thing is that the courses are delivered in bitesize chunks, which can be done alongside existing work.
I love how innovative, forward thinking, progressive and inclusive iPET Network is, and from BIGA's point of view it is so important that people who aren't qualified to have this kind of access to courses."
Julie Harris of The Groomers Spotlight, said: "The Groomers Spotlight is an online search engine to enable pet owners to find a qualified dog groomer, founded in 2017, The Groomers Spotlight has always supported education and the promotion of professionalism in the dog grooming industry, we are pleased to encourage, support and highlight any form of formal training for dog groomers."
Sarah Mackay and Fern Gresty of the iPET Network added: "We are so thrilled to be part of this groundbreaking partnership, which shows our core commitment to developing skills within our brilliant grooming industry.
"By offering this scheme, the deep knowledge that groomers have developed over the years can be recognised across different areas, and this helps with public confidence in the work that we all do."
