Internships are a compulsory element of veterinary training and are a prerequisite for admission to the examination. Passing the veterinary examination is in turn a prerequisite for obtaining a veterinary licence. This licence entitles you to practice veterinary medicine without restrictions in Germany. The aim of the internships is to prepare students for this professional activity. For this reason, requirements for the internships are comprehensively formulated in TAppV of 27 July 2006 in Section 3 “Practical Part of Study Course”, Sections 54 to 62 and in Annexes 6 to 12 as well as in the First Regulation amending TAppV of 20 December 2017.

The State Examination Office for Health Professions at the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs (State Examination Office) must check compliance with the internship requirements as a prerequisite for admission to the state veterinary examination. The university shall determine the timing of the internships (Section 54, Sentence 2 TAppV). This means that veterinary medicine students are subject to strict requirements when completing their internships, which are listed below. All internship certificates must be submitted as a prerequisite for final admission to the final examinations of the veterinary examination in the 11th semester. The State Examination Office governs all decisions regarding internships and admission to examinations.

The internships are held outside the lecture period and generally during full-time working hours throughout the working week to an appropriate extent in accordance with the workload in the respective facilities (Section 54, Sentence 1 TAppV). A minimum number of hours and a minimum number of weeks are set for the duration of the internship. Both minimum criteria must be met. Depending on the actual working hours per day and the working days per week, the minimum number of hours and the minimum number of weeks are usually met at different points in time. For example, if veterinary work is only carried out in half-days at an abattoir, the number of internship weeks is extended until the required minimum number of hours is met. If, when working in veterinary clinics, the required total number of hours is met before the total number of weeks due to a higher number of weekly working hours, the internship must be continued until the minimum number of weeks is reached. If the required minimum number of hours or minimum number of weeks cannot be met due to absence (e.g. illness), these absences must be made up. The latter applies regardless of whether there was a valid reason for the absence (e.g. doctor's letter) or not.

Students complete the following internships as part of their studies:

• Agricultural Internship

• First section of the practical training in the curative veterinary practice (short curative internship)

• Second section of the practical training in the curative veterinary practice (long curative internship)

• Practical training in ante-mortem and post-mortem meat inspection

• Practical training in inspection activities, methods, and technologies for the foodstuffs sector

• Training in Veterinary Public Health (Veterinary inspection offices)
  

Further information on extramural internships, learning objectives, evaluation and certification can be found in the booklet “Guide to EPT” [German version].