Equine and Animal Care learners

Practical learning

If you’re passionate about working with animals and pursuing a career in equine or animal care, our tailored qualifications will equip you with the skills and knowledge required for success. Whether you’re new to the workforce or aiming to advance in your current role, our qualifications can help you achieve your goals.

Our courses are entirely work-based, allowing you to gain practical experience from industry professionals. Our team of incredible Trainer Coaches have lots of experience, and will also support you throughout the duration of your qualification. We can also help you to find the right qualification and offer free impartial information, advice and guidance to help you reach your specific aspirations.

What we offer

Alternative Education

Equestrian Sporting Excellence (AESE)

BHS Partnership

Horse Transport

Business Administrator within Racing

Team Leader in equine or animal care

Customer Service in equine or animal care

Animal Care and Welfare

Keeper and Aquarist

Dog Groomer

Equine

Horseracing

Functional Skills

If you choose an apprenticeship with us, you might need to complete Functional Skills qualifications in maths and English. These are a mandatory part of apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds in England, unless you already hold a qualification in these areas at this level. For learners aged 19 and over, Functional Skills are optional.

Whether it’s calculating feed and medication amounts or communicating well with clients and colleagues, these skills play a vital role in various equine and animal care positions.

For our Alternative Provision courses, Functional Skills are optional.

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Alternative provision

Haddon Training has a long history of assisting individuals with special educational needs. We are dedicated to helping those who struggle in traditional classroom environments succeed in alternative settings and earn qualifications.

We work closely with many organisations throughout England that provide inclusive learning and create unique opportunities to learn new skills with horses and animals. These include RISE Wild, JAC in a BOX, and Cotswold RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association).

Our goal is to create more learning opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background or challenges, so they can earn a recognised qualification and develop career opportunities.

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Links for learners

Well-being and safeguarding

The safety and well-being of our learners, employers and staff are paramount. We are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all.

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Our apprenticeship vacancies

Some of our fantastic employers are seeking passionate individuals to join their teams. Explore our current apprenticeship vacancies below.

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Employment rights and responsibilities

Discover the key employment rights for apprentices and the mandatory requirements which all employers must adhere to when hiring an apprentice.

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Useful information

Entry requirements

When looking to undertake an apprenticeship with us, the person applying should have some basic experience in the field that they are applying (this can be personal experience and doesn’t have to be knowledge of working in a business environment). This allows them to grow and expand their experiences whilst learning everything it takes to work in a business setting.

For apprenticeships, they will also need to study English and maths if they haven’t already achieved a level 2 in these areas (GCSE grade A-C or grade 4 or above) and will work towards achieving a Functional Skills Level 2 qualification in these areas as part of the apprenticeship. Their digital skills will also be developed as part of our apprenticeship programmes.

For our Alternative Provision courses, no experience is necessary, but our courses currently centre around developing skills with animals, and so a desire to learn and care for animals is required.

How to apply

Apprenticeships

If your child would like us to help them to find an apprenticeship position they can apply online via our Contact Us form. Once received, our dedicated team will be in touch with them via phone or email to discuss their application before advising on any suitable roles.

If they would like to look at our available vacancies, they can view our vacancies page to see what we are currently offering. They can then apply for any roles that are of interest via our portal.

They can apply before finishing school.

If your child is already volunteering or working for an employer and they are happy for them to start an apprenticeship, we can also organise this with your child and the employer – please just get in touch and let us know.

Alternative Provision

These courses are available at select locations across England. Please refer to our course page for more information or contact us for help with how to apply.

Health and Safety

All employers are required to comply with certain regulatory and quality standards. When they take on a learner with us, we provide a checklist that identifies the mandatory and advisory standards that employers are required to meet. They must comply with all legal and regulatory standards when employing staff or training learners, and ensure they are all working in a safe and healthy environment.

Haddon Training take these standards seriously and will take steps to satisfy ourselves that employers meet these requirements before agreeing to a learner. Further information on the requirements can be found at www.hse.gov.uk.

Safeguarding and Welfare

We are committed to providing a secure environment for all learners and staff. All our staff recognise that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility irrespective of the role they undertake or whether their role has direct contact or responsibility for learners or not. Haddon Training aims to create a culture of vigilance.

We abide by all Safeguarding legislation and have a Safeguarding Officer available.

You can contact our Safeguarding Officer on 07745 647524 or email: safeguarding@haddontraining.co.uk.
For more on our safeguarding policy and other policies please click here.

Safeguarding and Welfare: Learners Living On-Site
Where an employer offers the provision of accommodation for ‘Young People’ working as apprentices, they have a duty to ensure they comply with all legislation that covers this.

For apprentices under 18, or under 25 with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, that will be sharing accommodation facilities with adults (people aged 18 years old or over), employers must ensure DBS checks (a record of a person’s criminal convictions and cautions carried out by the Disclosure and Barring Service) are carried out on the other occupants within the accommodation before that child begins to live on-site.

Where there are charges for accommodation the government provides advice and guidance on this legislation. Please click here for the government website.

If you have any questions please also get in touch with our team. Safeguarding concerns should also be reported by calling 07745 647524 or via email safeguarding@haddontraining.co.uk.

Mental Health and Well-being

We encourage our learners to always talk to their parents, Trainer Coach or employer if they are struggling. No-one should ever have to feel alone.

Below you will find a number of resources that may also be of use.

The NHS offer an array of tools and self-care videos for young people, with handy tips on exercise, sleep and how to take care of themselves on social media.

MIND have set up a ‘Get help now’ function, which includes crisis coping tools and an Infoline and Legal line.

YoungMinds have fantastic advice on mental health support covering feelings of anxiety, stress, eating disorders and the impact of Coronavirus.

Riders Minds is a freely available, online, bespoke resource, dedicated to supporting the mental health and well-being of all horse riders.

Grooms Minds is run by the British Grooms Association and is an online resource dedicated to supporting the mental health and well-being of its members.

Racing Welfare provide a 24 hour support line which can be reached via their website.

National Bullying Helpline offer training and direction on what to do when you experience bullying, including a confidential helpline and Welsh language helpline.

If you are looking for support and guidance for addictions there is also some fantastic support networks available:

Drinkaware is a great website to help you understand what triggers you to drink and arming you with strategies to help overcome excuses and reduce your drinking.

Drug Addiction believe that with the right help and support, it’s possible for you to get drug free and stay that way.

Gambling – If you feel you have a problem with gambling and you’d like to stop, support and treatment is available.

Please remember that we also offer a Safeguarding helpline for all our learners.

Additional links

Haddon Policies – we have a page dedicated to our policies and procedures covering our approach to a wide range of subjects. If you have any specific questions, please contact us.

National Minimum Wage

ACAS gives free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules and best practice.

Amazing apprenticeships containing a collection of free resources designed to provide you with more information on the benefits of apprenticeships.