Evidencing Day One Competencies in Veterinary Education

How can veterinary schools confidently demonstrate that every graduate is truly ready to practise?

For deans, programme directors, and heads of veterinary schools worldwide, few questions carry more weight than this. Day One Competencies—the foundational skills, knowledge, and professional behaviours that graduates must possess before entering independent practice—sit at the heart of veterinary education. They represent our collective promise to the profession, to animal welfare, and to public health.

Yet despite their importance, many institutions find themselves grappling with a persistent challenge: how do we systematically track, evidence, and verify that each student has genuinely achieved these competencies before graduation?

The Growing Complexity of Competency Assurance

Veterinary accrediting bodies around the world, whether the RCVS, AVMA, AVBC, EAEVE, or regional equivalents, have established comprehensive frameworks defining what graduates must demonstrate. These frameworks continue to evolve, reflecting advances in veterinary science, changing societal expectations, and emerging areas such as One Health and antimicrobial stewardship.

For educators, this creates a multifaceted challenge. Day One Competencies span diverse domains: clinical reasoning and practical skills, communication and client interaction, professional conduct and ethical decision-making, business awareness, and scientific inquiry. Students must evidence achievement across dozens—sometimes hundreds—of discrete competencies throughout their programme, drawing on experiences from lectures, laboratories, clinical rotations, and extramural placements.

Veterinary programmes must not only teach these competencies but also provide evidence that every graduate has demonstrated them in authentic clinical settings.

This means:

• tracking thousands of clinical experiences

• gathering assessments from diverse supervisors

• supporting student reflection and feedback

• mapping activity to competency frameworks

• producing evidence for accreditation bodies

This is a huge administrative and pedagogic challenge, especially without the right tools.

The question becomes: how do we capture all of this in a way that is meaningful, verifiable, and accessible?

Where Traditional Approaches Fall Short

Many veterinary schools rely on a combination of spreadsheets, paper-based logs, or legacy systems that were never designed for competency-based tracking. While these approaches may capture some data, they often struggle to provide what accreditors, students, and institutions genuinely need.

Common limitations include fragmented records spread across multiple platforms, making it difficult to see the complete picture of a student's progress. There is often limited visibility for students themselves, who may be unaware of gaps in their competency portfolio until late in their programme. Aggregating evidence for accreditation visits frequently requires significant manual effort. Perhaps most critically, demonstrating that every graduate has met every required competency—with supporting evidence—can become an exercise in administrative archaeology rather than confident assurance.

When accreditors ask how you know your graduates are Day One ready, the answer should be clear and immediate—not contingent on collating information from disparate sources.

A Different Approach: Competency Tracking Built for Purpose

This is precisely the challenge MyProgress was designed to address. As an ePortfolio platform developed in close partnership with healthcare and veterinary educators, MyProgress provides a structured, transparent approach to competency tracking that benefits institutions, educators, and students alike.

At its core, MyProgress maps your curriculum directly to your competency framework—whether aligned to RCVS, AVMA, or your own institutional standards. Every assessment, every clinical encounter, every reflection can be linked to specific competencies, building a comprehensive evidence base throughout the student journey.

Crucially, this evidence is visible and actionable. Students can see their own progress in real time, with clear indication of which competencies they have achieved, which are in progress, and where gaps remain. This transparency shifts the dynamic from passive hope that everything will come together by graduation to active, informed engagement with their own professional development.

For programme leaders, MyProgress provides the aggregated oversight needed for curriculum review, quality assurance, and accreditation preparation. You can identify cohort-wide patterns, spot areas where students consistently struggle to gain experience, and make evidence-based decisions about curriculum design and placement allocation.

Supporting Day One Competencies with the MyProgress ePortfolio

The MyProgress ePortfolio, developed by MyKnowledgeMap, is designed specifically to support programmes that require authentic, workplace-based assessment, including competency-based veterinary education. It is designed to support workplace learning, ensuring institutions can evidence student capability comprehensively and reliably.

Here’s how it directly supports the development and verification of Day One Competencies:

1. Direct Mapping to Veterinary Competency Frameworks

MyProgress allows universities to map assessments, reflections, skills logs, and clinical experience logs directly to:

• RCVS Day One Competences

• EAEVE Day One Skills

• AVMA COE competencies

• School-specific EPA frameworks

This ensures that every piece of student evidence contributes meaningfully to a competency profile.

Progress views map student evidence to competency frameworks

2. Real-Time Workplace-Based Assessment

Clinical supervisors can complete assessments on mobile devices, even offline, in busy hospitals, farms, or field environments. Tools include:

• Mini-CEX

• DOPS

• Case-based discussions

• Skills sign-offs

• Professional behaviour assessments

This creates a continuous, authentic record of progression toward Day One readiness.

The intuitive systemmakes capturing feedback and assessments seamless

3. Structured Reflective Practice

MyProgress gives students space to reflect on:

• feedback from supervisors

• challenging cases

• communication experiences

• welfare decisions

• professional dilemmas

Reflection is then linked directly to competencies, helping students demonstrate growth and self-awareness — a key Day One expectation.

4. Dashboards for Staff and Students

Dynamic dashboards provide:

• students with a clear view of their progress

• staff with insights into cohort development

• evidence needed for accreditation inspections

This transparency reduces stress for learners and provides confidence for educators.

At-a-glance overview dashboards for educators

5. A Complete Evidence Portfolio for Graduation & Accreditation

When a student’s programme is complete, MyProgress can produce the following outputs:

• competency framework completion

• workplace assessments

• completed skills

• reflective entries

• supervisor sign-offs

This demonstrates definitively that each graduate meets the standards required for Day One practice.

Clarity for Students, Confidence for Institutions

One of the most powerful aspects of transparent competency tracking is what it does for student agency. When learners can see exactly where they stand, they can take ownership of addressing gaps—seeking out additional clinical experiences, requesting specific case exposure during rotations, or engaging in targeted reflection.

This matters enormously for Day One readiness. Competence is not simply about ticking boxes; it requires sufficient breadth and depth of experience for graduates to feel genuinely prepared. When students can see their portfolio taking shape, they are better positioned to ensure they enter the profession with confidence rather than uncertainty.

For institutions, this clarity translates to confidence. When accreditors visit, when external stakeholders ask questions, when your own governance structures require assurance—you have the evidence at your fingertips. Not approximations or assumptions, but documented, verified evidence of competency achievement.

"MyProgress provides a seamless and user-friendly platform, making it easier for students to track their progress and meet educational requirements.

Being able to say to the regulator 'here’s exactly how many forms have been completed across the cohort' has made a huge difference"

James Rawlings, Digital Education Developer, Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol

Strengthening Accreditation and Curriculum Coherence

Different accrediting bodies emphasise different competencies and use different frameworks. MyProgress is designed to be configurable to your specific requirements, whether you are working to RCVS Day One Competences, AVMA COE standards, AVBC accreditation requirements, or other national or regional frameworks.

This flexibility extends to how competencies are evidenced. Some may require direct observation and sign-off by clinical supervisors. Others may be demonstrated through case logs, reflective entries, or formal assessments. MyProgress accommodates this variety, allowing you to define appropriate evidence requirements for each competency while maintaining a coherent, accessible record for every student.

In an era of increasing regulatory scrutiny, MyProgress helps universities:

• demonstrate clear alignment between curricula and Day One Competencies

• provide auditors with transparent, verifiable evidence

• monitor assessment consistency across multiple clinical sites

• support external stakeholders with comprehensive competency data

• facilitate curriculum review and continuous improvement processes

The result is a more cohesive, data-driven approach to veterinary education.

Moving Forward with Confidence

The expectations placed on veterinary graduates have never been higher, and the scrutiny applied to veterinary education has intensified accordingly. In this environment, the ability to clearly evidence Day One Competency achievement is not merely advantageous; it is essential.

If your current systems leave you uncertain about whether every student has met every competency, or if generating evidence for accreditation feels like an administrative burden rather than a straightforward process, it may be time to consider a purpose-built solution.

By pairing rigorous Day One Competency frameworks with powerful tools like MyProgress, schools can ensure that students not only meet accreditation standards but also enter the profession with confidence, transparency, and a clear evidence base of their abilities.

For employers, this means safer, better-prepared new vets.

For students, it means clarity and support throughout their journey.

For educators, it means accurate, reliable competency tracking without overwhelming administrative burden.

MyProgress is already supporting medical schools, nursing programmes, and veterinary institutions across the UK, Australia, the UAE, and beyond. We welcome the opportunity to explore how our platform might support your institution's commitment to graduating confident, competent veterinary professionals.

Interested in learning more about how MyProgress supports competency tracking in veterinary education? Contact us to arrange a demonstration or discuss your institution's specific requirements.