The vet tech program number nobody hiring right now is checking

The American Veterinary Medical Association's Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities released accreditation decisions following its June meeting. According to the CVTEA, it "currently accredits 219 veterinary technology programs" and "84 percent hold full accreditation, 11 percent hold initial accreditation, 3 percent are on probationary accreditation, and 2 percent have voluntary terminal accreditation."

Long Island University in Brookville, New York, advanced from initial to full accreditation. The committee also "voted to continue full accreditation for 93 programs, restore full accreditation to three programs, continue initial accreditation for nine programs, and continue probationary accreditation for two programs," and placed two additional programs on probationary accreditation, according to Veterinary Practice News.

The status the résumé doesn't print

Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, "received voluntary terminal accreditation effective June 13," the CVTEA reported. Ashworth College in Norcross, Georgia, "had its accreditation withdrawn effective the same date."

In April, the CVTEA "granted initial accreditation, effective in January, to four institutions: Community College of Beaver County, Trocaire College, Great Falls College/Montana State University, and Iowa Central Community College," according to the announcement.

What initial, probationary, and terminal actually mean

Initial accreditation is the first status a new program receives. It means the program met the standards to start, not that it's been operating long enough to prove outcomes. Probationary accreditation means the program fell out of compliance and is working to fix it. Terminal accreditation means the program is closing and won't enroll new students, though current students can finish.

A graduate from any of those three statuses can sit for boards and become credentialed. The credential looks identical. The résumé lists the school name, the graduation date, and the credential. It does not list the program's accreditation status at the time the student enrolled or graduated.

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The hiring question this creates

If you're hiring a recent graduate, you're looking at candidates who may have trained at programs that were on probation, newly accredited, or in the process of closing. That doesn't disqualify them. A strong student at a probationary program can be a better hire than a weak student from a fully accredited one, but it does mean the program's clinical-hours structure, faculty stability, and equipment access may have been inconsistent during their training.

The CVTEA publishes the full accreditation list on the AVMA website, updated after each meeting. According to the committee, its "next meeting is scheduled for November 5-7" and it "extended its emergency conditions policy related to avian skills until November, when it will be reviewed again."

Our read

Most practices don't check the accreditation status of the program a tech graduated from, and most hiring managers couldn't name the difference between initial and full accreditation if asked. That's fine when 84 percent of programs hold full accreditation and the credential itself is the filter. It becomes a gap when you're trying to understand why one new grad is clinic-ready on day one and another needs six months of remedial training on the same tasks. The program's accreditation status at the time they trained is one data point, not the only one, but one you can check in two minutes before the interview rather than six months into the hire.

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