Animal Rescue School

It's Autumn, and the start of what will prove to be the most punishing year of training for the students have ever faced. With places on the course more in-demand than Oxbridge, only the very best of over four thousand applicants have made it past the selection process, but now the lucky twenty-five must show they've got what it takes to go all the way.

It's early Spring, and the Trainee RSPCA Inspectors still need to pass nine months of rigorous teaching, physical tests and on-the-job assessment if they're to be offered the dream job. The group are out shadowing qualified Inspectors working real-life investigations. Georgie, the youngest student in the class, rushes to the rescue of two abandoned cats and a malnourished swan in trouble. And Natalie, who gave up her career in Probation Services to follow her dreams, helps police stamp out illegal blood-sport in Lincolnshire.

The Trainee RSPCA Inspectors have reached the halfway point in their extraordinary year of teaching, testing and on-the-job assessment. If they make it to the end, the students will become fully-fledge Inspectors, but should they fail at any point, they'll be off the course.

It's late spring, and the trainees are seven months into the year-long course that should see them graduate as RSPCA Inspectors at the end, but they'll only make it that far if they're able to impress tutors with their handling of real-life cases and pass the final round of make-or-break physical trials.

The student RSPCA Inspectors are now entering the last and toughest stage of their year-long training. They're investigating cases by themselves for the first time ever. If they make it through these final few months, they'll be offered a full-time position, but for now they're on probation with no guarantee of success.

The trainee RSPCA Inspectors' extraordinary year of training is drawing to a close. The students are out on the beat, working real-life cases by themselves and desperate to show they're ready to become full-time Inspectors. They are on probation and only those who consistently meet the standards expected of them by bosses will be offered a job. It's a race against time. In a couple of months, those trainees who have proven they're up to the task will be invited down to HQ to sign a contract and graduate.