Enrollment for the next class of the Gloucester County Emergency Medical Service Initial EMT Training Academy is now open.
To introduce EMS as a career to non-EMS personnel, an open house for the academy is scheduled for Thursday, July 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the auditorium and parking lot of the Government Services Building, 1200 N. Delsea Drive, Building A in Clayton.
Individual speakers, including GCEMS employees and individuals who began their career at GCEMS and have successfully moved onto other areas of the medical field, are planned. Various equipment, including the training mannequins, a bariatric ambulance, the medical ambulance bus and the ASAP off-road ambulance, will also be displayed during the event.
“This one-year training program is offered free to those individuals wishing to obtain an Emergency Medical Technician certification and potentially become employees of GCEMS and the County of Gloucester,” Gloucester County Freeholder Director Robert Damminger said. “In the first year of the academy, all eighteen students successfully graduated from the program. Each student saved the nearly $2,000. In training costs as the program was offered to them for free.”
“Gloucester County’s EMS is an award-winning service and the professional staff provides high quality services to their patients,” Gloucester Freeholder Dan Christy said. “By training future EMT’s, GCEMS can provide their outstanding education and practices to those accepted into the program without the $2,000 price tag it would cost to be privately trained. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone who is interested in pursuing a career in EMS.”
The certification course and internship consist of 649 hours of education followed by a 144-hour residency ride-a-long program.
The application period for the next academy class, scheduled to start in September 2019, is now open. No reservation is needed to attend the open house.
