4 apprentices from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service were among 200 paramedic apprentices from across England who officially graduated from University of Cumbria last week.
Lynsey Groves, Kenny Wilson, Adam Nordell and Steve Smith graduated alongside colleagues from 6 other ambulance services.
Lynsey, who is 36 and lives in Shanklin, attended the ceremony at Carlisle Cathedral. She’s said:
“I wanted to do the paramedic degree for many years but taking three years out of work wasn’t a financially viable option. I was really pleased when the Trust started offer the degree level apprenticeship programme and knew it was right for me.
“It was a bit of a shock to be back in an educational environment and I found it quite hard to begin with. The tutors were fully aware of this though and the support you are given throughout is brilliant. I am amazed by how much I have learnt and the academic skills that I now have.
“I will be forever grateful for being given the chance to follow my dreams with such an amazing career and gain a fully funded degree.”
Having had such a good experience of being mentored throughout the degree programme, Lynsey is now looking at how she too can mentor apprentices in the future. She’s also looking at further education opportunities to build on her degree.
Of those graduating, 74% achieved an upper-class degree, 32% of those received a 1st class degree, illustrating the high calibre of graduates from the programme.
Louise Walker, Ambulance Education Lead, has said:
“Congratulations to our students who graduated this year, it is fantastic that the first cohort has now completed the course, and I’m delighted to see all their hard work pay off.
“The programme is proving to be a great success and is becoming a popular route for our front-line staff to develop their clinical skills whilst maintaining a full-time role at IWAS. We see the equivalent benefit of being able to develop and enhance our own workforce. This year we have three more people taking the course.
“Developing paramedics through an apprenticeship pathway is an exciting and privileged opportunity. As a placement provider and employer, we strive to ensure all our students have a learning experience that is focused on quality, in a safe and inclusive environment.
“We look forward to supporting them further as they develop in their newly qualified roles, to deliver the best possible care to people on the Isle of Wight.”
The apprenticeship boosts England’s paramedic workforce by up-skilling frontline ambulance staff, such as emergency medical technicians, to fully qualified paramedics in 2 years. Apprentices continue to work on the frontline as they train.
The BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science (Apprenticeship) Degree was devised by the University of Cumbria 2 years ago to address significant ongoing workforce shortages in the profession. 7 of 11 English ambulance trusts joined the programme, which currently delivers over 600 trained paramedics for the NHS workforce annually.
If you are interested in finding out more about joining the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service email [email protected].
Well done all of you, especially Lynsey who has worked so hard for this.
Thank you for letting us know who you are.
Well done everyone. Doing a degree is so rewarding. You’re never too old to do one.
Would I be wrong in saying that now they have to find the money to take a ambulance driving test. Congratulations on your hard work in this front line work.