As part of National Apprenticeship Week, we're celebrating a group of our student paramedic apprentices who presented their final dissertations at an event opened by Jason Killens, Chair of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), last month.
We have been supporting the development of our staff through a range of apprenticeship programmes over the past few years.
The students are the fifth cohort to near completion of their Paramedic Apprenticeship programme and will hopefully be operational in their roles as newly qualified paramedics from April 2025.
The course is one of the apprenticeships at Nottingham Trent University, who we have worked with over the past five years to support our ambulance technicians to take this further exciting step in their careers.
We joined the students at the university to see this final stage and speak to them about all their hard work.
Jade Evans has been at EMAS for 16 years and started in the Non-Emergency Patient Transport team in Lincolnshire.
She’s been a Technician for 10 years and is now based at Scunthorpe Station.
She said: "I have always been happy being a technician but then I started to want more. I wanted to be able to go more in depth to help patients.
"I’ve got a young family, so would not have been able to take the next step in my career without this opportunity.
"Naturally I’m apprehensive about going out on the road as a paramedic, which I think is normal, but I’m also incredibly excited.
"It was very interesting doing the research project and I will definitely be using the knowledge I gained from it when I go back on the road."
Tomos Avis is based at Coalville Station in Leicestershire.
He said of the course: "The practice educators have been really helpful and it has been great to have the support of mentors.
"The course has also given me the opportunity to meet people from different divisions and hear about different ways of working."
Tomos is pictured here on the left with Fabian Ehlers, from Wilford Station in Nottinghamshire.
We also spoke to Andy Kirk, our Assistant Director of Education and Organisational Development (pictured below).
He said: "It’s amazing to see all the work the students have done. Their research projects are so insightful and there’s such a variety of topics that have been covered. They should all be very proud and I’d like to congratulate them on their presentations and wish them the best for the future."
Jason Killens, who joined the event via a video link and is also Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, shared how impressed he was with the students work.
He said: "Colleagues demonstrated a palpable commitment to high quality patient care and public service and were excited about the next phase of their career development. It was fantastic to be able to thank them, on behalf of the UK ambulance sector, for their service to date and wish them well for their future careers."