New Accreditation for Veterinary Technology Program
Central Coast College (CCC) is pleased to announce that its Veterinary Technology program has been awarded Initial Accreditation by the Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities (CVTEA) of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The College received notification from CVTEA on April 24th.
CVTEA is a specialized accreditation that evaluates the quality of education programs to ensure they meet the standards of the AVMA. The accreditation means that students who successfully complete the college’s Veterinary Technology program will graduate from a CVTEA-accredited program; this enables students to take the state and national examinations to become Registered Veterinary Technicians (RVT).
This was a multi-year project for Central Coast College. It began in 2013 when CCC was approached by members of the local veterinary community wanting to have a local RVT training program.
In August 2014, CCC began a one-year Veterinary Assisting Diploma program after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with SPCA for Monterey County. This allowed the training program to have classroom space and access to facilities for clinical training for students at the SPCA Campus.
The partnership with the SPCA enables CCC to provide students the opportunity to work with a variety of animals not often seen in Veterinary Technology training programs such as birds, horses, and reptiles, in addition to cats and dogs.
In June 2015, Sharon Willis, BS, RVT, was hired as Director of Veterinary Technology Programs to develop an Associates of Applied Science (AAS) degree program. This was followed by a pre-application to CVTEA, and then a full application and site visit by a CVTEA team in November 2016, which culminated in the grant of initial accreditation in April 2017.
Willis is commended for her commitment and hard work, along with the faculty members and Advisory Committee members. Faculty members Rachel Sage, DVM, and Patty Zehna, RVT, deserve special mention for their contributions in launching the college’s Veterinary Assistant Diploma program in 2014 and later the Veterinary Technology AAS program in July 2016.
Central Coast College is pleased and proud to offer this newly-accredited Veterinary Technology program. For questions about this program, please contact us today!
To view Central Coast College’s full disclosures, click here.