Becoming an SQP

An SQP is an animal health advisor, known by the legally defined term "Suitably Qualified Person". An SQP must pass a set of exams to demonstrate animal health knowledge and an understanding of the legal system, and be registered with AMTRA. Once qualified, SQPs are allowed to prescribe and/or supply certain medicines (those classified POM-VPS and NFA-VPS) for farm animals, horses, and pets.

• You may also wish to read VMD's guide "What is a Suitably Qualified Person (SQP)?"

SQPs may only supply veterinary medicines for which they are qualified from registered premises – that is, a Veterinary Practice Premises (VPP) registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS); a retail pharmacy registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) or the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI); or premises approved as SQP Retailers’ premises by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) .

Please note that if you are setting up a new SQP Retailers’ premises, you must apply directly to the VMD’s Animal Medicines Inspectorate (AMI) for premises in England, Scotland or Wales, or DHSSPS (for Northern Ireland) with the appropriate payment. This does not happen automatically once you've passed your SQP exam. The premises must be inspected and approved before veterinary medicines can be obtained and supplied. The AMI aims to process applications within 10 working days and conduct the approval inspection within 30 days of the application being processed.

The process in summary

The process of becoming an SQP normally looks like this (click on each item for more details):

1. Enrol with AMTRA
2. Receive from AMTRA a printed home-study manual
3. Study!
4. As an optional supplement, book directly with a training venue a taught course
5. Book an exam with AMTRA
6. Wait for your exam results
6a. Re-sit any modules
7. Enter the AMTRA Register
8. Continue as an SQP including CPD and annual fees

In more detail...

1. Enrol with AMTRA

Send AMTRA a completed enrolment form with the appropriate fee. You should select which type of SQP you wish to become:

Since qualified Veterinary Nurses already have been assessed on some of the relevant material in this qualification they can be given credit for this and just have to be assessed on the "new" material and the working understanding of their other knowledge checked - on the enrolment form they should select the Veterinary Nurse option and fee. More information for Veterinary Nurses...

Non-qualified nurses and receptionists can also become SQPs but they will have to enrol as a new student at the full fee, not using the veterinary nurse rate.

The enrolment fee includes:

• the examination fee (provided the exam is taken within 2 years of enrolment) - including the fee paid to the exam centre and the fee paid to Harper Adams for providing the exam and marking it
• the AMTRA assessment fee (including the oral examination)
• the price of the training material

• the Harper Adams assessment/credit rating/quality control fee
• a NOAH Compendium containing data sheets of those medicines which qualified SQPs can prescribe
• inclusion on the AMTRA SQP Register for the remainder of the calendar year of the examination
• access to AMTRA services and to Continuing Professional Development

The fee is subsidised by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) who support work-based training.

2. Receive from AMTRA a printed home-study manual

We will send by courier a printed manual for you to study with the appropriate modules depending on which species groups you have selected at enrolment.

You will also, separately, receive from Harper Adams University details of how to access an online version of the training manual, including your individual password. If you lose this or have difficulties accessing the online system, please contact Adam Carter at Harper Adams: Telephone: +44 (0)1952 815008, email: acarter@harper-adams.ac.uk

3. Study!

Home study from the printed manual and the online system may be supplemented in some cases by training provided by your employer.

4. As an optional supplement, book directly with a training venue a taught course

To supplement the printed training manual, most students find it highly advantageous to undertake a taught course provided by a specialist educational centre or trainer and a list of these courses is available on the AMTRA website - see also the dates for Veterinary Nurses.

It is up to you whether to attend a course: the training centre will charge a fee for this. Courses should be booked directly with the training centre.

Those taking the farm animal module are also required to do a project (see next section for more): AMTRA recommends that you start the project before attending a course.

Booking a training course is not the same as booking the exam, even if they are to take place at the same venue. You must book any training course with the training centre, but book any exam directly with AMTRA.

5. Book an exam with AMTRA

You must book the exam directly with AMTRA, regardless of where you are planning to take the exam (or whether you've separately booked a training course). A list of forthcoming exam dates is available on the AMTRA website - see also the dates for Veterinary Nurses.

The exam must be booked within two years of enrolling with AMTRA (otherwise an additional fee will be charged to cover any increase in enrolment fees during that period). You must have enrolled first before booking your exam. Note that if you choose to take your initial exam modules (i.e. those for which you initially enrol) spread over more than one date, there is an additional fee, currently £100 for each additional exam sitting.

Exams must be booked an absolute minimum of two weeks before the exam take place - and some exams fill up well in advance.

Those taking the farm animal module are also required to do a project: this needs to be submitted at least two weeks prior to the exam date and so you should select an exam date with that in mind.

• Extra Guidance for students on the farm animal project
• Reminder for SQP candidates sending in their farm animal assignment
• Notice to all students studying the Farm Animal Module
• Spare copy of Farm Animal Project submission form (the original is in each candidate's manual)

The examination fee is included in your original enrolment fee.

• examination application form for Veterinary Nurse C-SQP
• examination application form for C-SQP (companion & base)
• examination application form for E-SQP (companion, equine & base)
• examination application form for G-SQP (equine, farm & base)
• examination application form for J-SQP (equine & base)
• examination application form for K-SQP (companion, farm & base)
• examination application form for L-SQP (farm & base)
• examination application form for R-SQP (companion, equine, farm & base)

AMTRA Examinations will be related to the modular nature of the course structure. Candidates will be examined separately in:

After the written examination, candidates are assessed for their professional competence as SQPs, which is undertaken by an AMTRA Assessor appointed for that purpose in a one-to-one 10-15 minute oral ("viva") examination. The specific purpose of the assessment is to establish that the candidate has competence in knowledge, understanding and interpretation of the legal and professional responsibilities of SQPs, of the relevant parts of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and the Code of Practice or of other germane legal and professional requirements.

All SQPs must succeed in the base module, an oral and at least one species module.

Additional modules can be added at a later date, so that, for an example an E-SQP could add the Farm Animal module and become an R-SQP.

• Rules & Regulations for AMTRA Exams
• Sample examination papers, questions and answers
• Formal module descriptors (syllabus)
   

6. Wait for your exam results

Because your qualification is part of the formal Higher Education system, your results must be approved by a formal Board meeting of Harper Adams University College and cannot be released before then. Results can therefore take up to 8 weeks to arrive. Please do not phone AMTRA chasing your results as unfortunately we will not be able to help you.

AMTRA will write to you with confirmation of whether you have been put on the AMTRA Register, and in what category. Harper Adams will separately write to you with full details of your results in each module. Although we endeavour to coordinate despatch of this information, sometimes you may receive one before the other - please be patient.

6a. Re-sit any modules

If you fail some or all modules of the exam you may re-sit those modules a limited number of times on payment of the appropriate re-sit fee. It should be noted that the re-sit fees for modules are higher than the equivalent fees included in the initial enrolment fee because funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) is only applicable to an individual once.

• re-sit exam form

Note for those re-sitting the Farm Animal Module:

The format of the assessment changes between attempts at this module.

For the first re-sit (formally a "reassessment"), the assessment takes the form of a two-hour exam consisting of a pre-seen case study which will have been sent to you by Harper Adams approximately four weeks prior to the exam, together with a 120-minute Q&A paper.

For the second re-sit (formally a "restudy"), the assessment takes the same form as the original exam, with the opportunity to resubmit the farm animal project (which you may re-work before re-submission) two weeks prior to the exam date.

If, exceptionally, permission is granted for a third re-sit (formally a "reassessment with restudy"), then the format will revert to that of the first re-sit (the "reassessment").

7. Enter the AMTRA Register

Successful candidates will be entered onto the AMTRA professional register of SQPs for the remainder of the calendar year in which they qualify.

8. Continue as an SQP including CPD and annual fees

In order to continue as an SQP, you must pay the annual renewal fee each year: this is currently £72.50 (including VAT) for those qualified to prescribe and supply livestock medicines, or £50.00 for all other SQPs. The renewal fee must be paid by 30 November in the preceding year, otherwise a reinstatement fee is also payable of 50% of the renewal fee.

You must act in accordance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and the Code of Practice issued under them by the Secretary of State.

You must also undertake at least the minimum prescribed amount of Continuous Professional Development as described on the CPD page.

Please note that if you are setting up a new SQP Retailers’ premises, you must apply directly to the VMD’s Animal Medicines Inspectorate (AMI) for premises in England, Scotland or Wales, or DHSSPS (for Northern Ireland) with the appropriate payment. This does not happen automatically once you've passed your SQP exam.

This page last updated 19/05/2010