Questions about front office positions versus technician.

Our state has a program where high school juniors and seniors can complete their last two years of high school along with a two year college degree through a local college for free as long as they maintain a certain grade level. My daughter is hoping to go into the veterinary field, but she can’t get into our local veterinary technician program until she’s 18, so in the meantime she’s going to do her two free years getting a accountant /bookkeeping/office assistant degree and certifications and complete her pre reqs for the vet tech program during that time.

Two part questions: what type of certifications or experience would a manger be looking for or require for front office staff at the clinic? Would bookkeeping/office assistant be something, or would you more be seeking those that went through the human side of the medical programs at a college, like clinical receptionist, medical billing and coding, etc?

On average, is there a significant difference between the pay of a front office staff and that of the techs?

She knows she wants to be in the field, she just isn’t sure how far to complete her education to make it worth her pay difference.

Of course we are hoping to have her job shadow both positions in the future to see which responsibilities she’d align with better as they are wildly different from each other, but this at least gives us a idea without awkwardly asking the questions to the people she’s shadowing.