Anew centre dedicated to professional development and lifelong learning for veterinary professionals has been officially launched in Tipperary. Premier Skills Institute opened on 6 March at a special event held at the Duggan Veterinary Group headquarters in Thurles.
For nearly 40 years, the Duggan Veterinary Group has grown alongside the veterinary profession. Opening in Holycross, Co Tipperary in 1987, it is a family-owned, Guaranteed Irish and ISO accredited business that is a leading provider of medicines, instruments and consumables to the veterinary market.
“We have grown phenomenally in the last number of years. We anticipate opening two more businesses by the end of this year, connected to the Duggan Group, which will hopefully extend us to over 100 people employed in the local area,” says Donal Duggan, managing director of Duggan Veterinary Group.
Although many in farming or animal health may not have heard of the company, if there is an issue at animal health level, they are on the Government speed dial in an emergency to get a product on the market, Donal explains.
“For instance, they ring us and say we need this product, we need a vaccine for bluetongue, or so on,” says Donal.
The company also repairs and certifies 95% of TB testing equipment in Ireland.
“We’re a cog in that whole process of testing and identification. We have one of the only few biocidal disinfectants for TB. We supply critical parts of the toolbox for when a disease presents itself,” he explains.
Premier Skills Institute has evolved from Duggan Veterinary Continuous Professional Development (CPD) education, which for many years was provided to veterinary professionals across Ireland and the UK.
The newly-established institute now operates as an independent company within Duggan Veterinary Group, with plans to expand its educational reach and develop a centre of excellence for veterinary skills development.
Information is key
“The supply chain is getting shorter, so the end user is getting closer to the manufacturer of the product. There are less people in the middle meaning less knowledge and education. It was obvious to us – be it a vet or farmer or indeed pet owner – that they all needed more information on what was actually happening.
"How to use the product, the best environment to use it in, the best approach to prevent disease and so on. We created this educational facility about three years ago to facilitate that demand,” says Donal.
Last year, they educated or trained in excess of 2,000 people in animal health. There are over 100 CPD courses currently available, from bovine health to advanced surgical nursing, etc. A full list is available from premierskillsinstitute.com.
“There are no options aside from Premier Skills Institute for doing certified postgraduate education [for vets]. They come to us and can do critical injury surgeries and many other things.
“Our premises in Thurles caters best for companion animals and displaying surgical procedures in very small groups. We work in equine and bovine,” explains Donal.
Donnacha and Donal Duggan watch Donal Duggan Senior cut the ribbon on Premier Skills Institute. /Tom Ryan Casey
Recognising the need for high-quality, accessible, and practice-ready training, the CPD division was created to deliver education aligned with real-world challenges. The focus is on a diverse range of training formats designed to meet the evolving needs of veterinary professionals.
These include on-site courses delivered at the Thurles training facility, live online webinars, practical training components for Improve Veterinary Education programmes, on-demand digital courses, and private courses tailored to individual practices or organisations.
The launch of the institute represents the next phase of that vision. As an independent entity, it aims to broaden its educational offering and support a wider community of animal health professionals, including veterinary nurses, technicians, practice managers, and future entrants to the profession.
“I think the end game for us is to focus on delivering top-class education training in both Ireland, the UK, across Europe, but more importantly, to the United States.
“The US is going to be a big target market for us in delivering this. There’s a type of educational tourism, where we will let people know that you can come to Ireland, only six hours away, spend a week here and do certifications and qualifications,” says Donal.
On the increased demand in people who want to study veterinary medicine in Ireland, Donal says: “The appetite to develop a career in animal health or veterinary has become more apparent to us, as people see not just the typical career pathways that were defined many years ago, but opportunities to go and do different things.
“There are challenges around the number of vets available. There are challenges around the facilities available.
“In some cases, there are challenges around even becoming a customer of the practice.” Tackling these challenges there has been a focus on AI and technology advancements.
“We have between 10 to 20,000 diagnostic tests being taken a month using AI in animal health. That has led to greater conversations [among vets] because now they have all the information [about the animals and the diseases].
“We have four or five different AI technologies either introduced or about to be introduced into the animal health industry. We use AI to learn the solutions and to learn the therapeutic options for the animals when sick within the veterinary practice. It has filled the gaps in the processes or the knowledge base that the vets had,” says Donal.
"This hasn’t replaced any vets; it has just meant they and the pet owners or farmers are getting a higher success rate and more successful outcomes more often because more information is available," concludes Donal.
See premierskillsinstitute.com
Anew centre dedicated to professional development and lifelong learning for veterinary professionals has been officially launched in Tipperary. Premier Skills Institute opened on 6 March at a special event held at the Duggan Veterinary Group headquarters in Thurles.
For nearly 40 years, the Duggan Veterinary Group has grown alongside the veterinary profession. Opening in Holycross, Co Tipperary in 1987, it is a family-owned, Guaranteed Irish and ISO accredited business that is a leading provider of medicines, instruments and consumables to the veterinary market.
“We have grown phenomenally in the last number of years. We anticipate opening two more businesses by the end of this year, connected to the Duggan Group, which will hopefully extend us to over 100 people employed in the local area,” says Donal Duggan, managing director of Duggan Veterinary Group.
Although many in farming or animal health may not have heard of the company, if there is an issue at animal health level, they are on the Government speed dial in an emergency to get a product on the market, Donal explains.
“For instance, they ring us and say we need this product, we need a vaccine for bluetongue, or so on,” says Donal.
The company also repairs and certifies 95% of TB testing equipment in Ireland.
“We’re a cog in that whole process of testing and identification. We have one of the only few biocidal disinfectants for TB. We supply critical parts of the toolbox for when a disease presents itself,” he explains.
Premier Skills Institute has evolved from Duggan Veterinary Continuous Professional Development (CPD) education, which for many years was provided to veterinary professionals across Ireland and the UK.
The newly-established institute now operates as an independent company within Duggan Veterinary Group, with plans to expand its educational reach and develop a centre of excellence for veterinary skills development.
Information is key
“The supply chain is getting shorter, so the end user is getting closer to the manufacturer of the product. There are less people in the middle meaning less knowledge and education. It was obvious to us – be it a vet or farmer or indeed pet owner – that they all needed more information on what was actually happening.
"How to use the product, the best environment to use it in, the best approach to prevent disease and so on. We created this educational facility about three years ago to facilitate that demand,” says Donal.
Last year, they educated or trained in excess of 2,000 people in animal health. There are over 100 CPD courses currently available, from bovine health to advanced surgical nursing, etc. A full list is available from premierskillsinstitute.com.
“There are no options aside from Premier Skills Institute for doing certified postgraduate education [for vets]. They come to us and can do critical injury surgeries and many other things.
“Our premises in Thurles caters best for companion animals and displaying surgical procedures in very small groups. We work in equine and bovine,” explains Donal.
Donnacha and Donal Duggan watch Donal Duggan Senior cut the ribbon on Premier Skills Institute. /Tom Ryan Casey
Recognising the need for high-quality, accessible, and practice-ready training, the CPD division was created to deliver education aligned with real-world challenges. The focus is on a diverse range of training formats designed to meet the evolving needs of veterinary professionals.
These include on-site courses delivered at the Thurles training facility, live online webinars, practical training components for Improve Veterinary Education programmes, on-demand digital courses, and private courses tailored to individual practices or organisations.
The launch of the institute represents the next phase of that vision. As an independent entity, it aims to broaden its educational offering and support a wider community of animal health professionals, including veterinary nurses, technicians, practice managers, and future entrants to the profession.
“I think the end game for us is to focus on delivering top-class education training in both Ireland, the UK, across Europe, but more importantly, to the United States.
“The US is going to be a big target market for us in delivering this. There’s a type of educational tourism, where we will let people know that you can come to Ireland, only six hours away, spend a week here and do certifications and qualifications,” says Donal.
On the increased demand in people who want to study veterinary medicine in Ireland, Donal says: “The appetite to develop a career in animal health or veterinary has become more apparent to us, as people see not just the typical career pathways that were defined many years ago, but opportunities to go and do different things.
“There are challenges around the number of vets available. There are challenges around the facilities available.
“In some cases, there are challenges around even becoming a customer of the practice.” Tackling these challenges there has been a focus on AI and technology advancements.
“We have between 10 to 20,000 diagnostic tests being taken a month using AI in animal health. That has led to greater conversations [among vets] because now they have all the information [about the animals and the diseases].
“We have four or five different AI technologies either introduced or about to be introduced into the animal health industry. We use AI to learn the solutions and to learn the therapeutic options for the animals when sick within the veterinary practice. It has filled the gaps in the processes or the knowledge base that the vets had,” says Donal.
"This hasn’t replaced any vets; it has just meant they and the pet owners or farmers are getting a higher success rate and more successful outcomes more often because more information is available," concludes Donal.
See premierskillsinstitute.com
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