The difficulties faced by younger members of the profession was brought home to me by a BEVA member who reported that she had had conversations with a group of recently graduated members working in equine practice.  The young vets (2011 graduates), once so full of excitement and optimism about their chosen careers were now down-at-heel and one was even looking to leave the profession.  No one has ever said being a vet was easy, particularly in horse practice, but this particular group of youngsters were specifically complaining about lack of support, changes in contract terms and clients complaining and then not being backed up by their employers.  Veterinary graduates don't just face careers issues or challenges with day-to-day work in equine practice at the early stages of their career and we mustn't ignore that.  There's no magic bullet to help but BEVA did run our first careers session at congress 2012 and we're hoping to expand on this further in the coming years.  The issues surrounding vet-graduate support (or lack of) are very complex and its difficult to know where to direct our limited resources.

We're always keen to hear from members and I am grateful to the individual who raised this again this week, just before our Board of Management and Policy Committee meeting on Monday.