A FORMER veterinary nurse, whose career path started as a kennel assistant cleaning cages, hand-rearing kittens and caring for poorly pets, has achieved a prestigious academic qualification.
Becky Dobell has achieved her Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from York St John University Business School after two years of studying on a part-time basis.
Becky is Senior Business Support Manager with UK veterinary group, VetPartners, which has more than 140 veterinary practices, with 5,746 employees working in nearly 400 sites.
She joined VetPartners three years ago and, up until 2012, she was working as a Registered Veterinary Nurse at Willows Veterinary Group in Cheshire, where she started as a Saturday girl while still at school, before joining them full-time as a student nurse.
She is among 12 VetPartners employees, many of whom are from clinical backgrounds, who have completed or are completing an MBA, an academically challenging qualification that provides an overview of key business practices and is highly valued by top employers.
The MBA was in senior leadership and covered areas like business strategy, change management and leading teams.
She will put her new-found knowledge to good use when she is a guest speaker at SPVS VMG virtual summit on December 1st.
Becky said: “Being a veterinary nurse, who started as a Saturday girl, gave me the best possible grounding in the industry. As a profession, veterinary nurses have such versatile and transferrable skills about all aspects of practice life.
“Completing the MBA has given me a different perspective of leadership and an ability to look at the bigger picture. I feel it has improved my leadership confidence and business knowledge, which I hope will ultimately benefit VetPartners.
“I was the only person from VetPartners on my cohort so it was a great opportunity to meet people from other business backgrounds and professions, learn new ways of working and see how we can implement them into the veterinary industry.
“I feel it is really positive that VetPartners support employees to develop their careers and learn new skills. What I’ve been doing was really encouraged and I was always able to seek support from inside the business while I was doing the MBA.
“Providing employees with these opportunities helps to develop team members from within and as a result that benefits the company.
After leaving practice life eight years ago, Becky embarked on a sales role within the veterinary industry, before working for a wholesale company as an inventory management specialist helping practices to improve their stock control.
In her current role, she supports the group’s small animal, equine, farm and mixed veterinary practices in areas such as business analysis, implementing strategy, developing practices and mentoring new leaders.
With a wealth of experience and knowledge of the veterinary industry, she has been invited to be one of the guest speakers at the Focus on Leadership and Management Virtual Summit, organised by SPVS and the VMG, on December 1st.
Her talk will focus on how practices can successfully deliver and use feedback constructively to help colleagues and clients.
The event will include two streams of live and interactive sessions from those at the forefront of management training.
For media enquiries, please contact Amanda Little, VetPartners Senior PR and Communications Manager, on 07970 198 492 or email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk