On recommendation of the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions, Aiken Technical College’s Emergency Medical Services Paramedic program has been recognized by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) for its exemplary standards of teaching.
“CAAHEP accreditation is required for graduates of paramedic programs to sit for the National Registry Paramedic examination, which is required for certification in most states,” said Jonathan Jones, Aiken Tech’s EMS program director. “The importance of accreditation is to ensure standardization of education and training and to meet the high standards set forth nationwide.”
The technical college offers three EMS programs: the Associate in Applied Science: Emergency Medical Technology degree, the Emergency Medical Technician Basic Certificate and the Emergency Medical Technician Advanced Certificate. Students who complete each program are then able to sit for the respective National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) exams, which is a computer-based certification test for emergency medical technicians.
“We make sure that the students have the knowledge,” Jones said. “We’ve also developed apprenticeship programs with Aiken County EMS … to where the students can actually come to school and be employed by those agencies and be paid while they’re going to school, so that way they don’t have to worry about tailoring their school schedule around their work.”
Jones said these field apprenticeships not only gives students real experience as they undergo the various certifications, but also provides most the opportunity to get through schooling for an extremely lost cost with scholarships and government grants.
“We’re talking about Pell grants, not student loans,” he said. “They’re graduating with a two year degree and zero student debt at a guaranteed job.”
From 2020 through 2022, while other schools experienced setbacks due to COVID-19 and quarantining, each program achieved a 100% job placement rate for its graduates and 100% NREMT pass rates.
Jones said he attributes these various successes to the staff’s elevated teaching standards and the programs’ flipped classroom model, which provides flexibility for those working while earning their Emergency Medical Technology degree and paramedic certification.
“This allows students the opportunity to work in the EMS field while attending class without having to modify their current work schedules. This also allows for apprenticeship programs with partner agencies, allowing students to be hired in their first semester before being certified as EMTs,” he stated.
Through the flipped model, students receive lectures and textbook-based instruction online, followed by in-person, practical lab activities in a “state-of-the-art” lab to apply learned concepts in a realistic, mock set-up.
“It gives us more time to focus on the actual job skills and puts more of the learning into the hands of the students,” Jones said. “As I explain to my students, the type of work that we do in EMS is about learning skill sets that need to be remembered and performed, even if we haven’t done it in a long time.”
Making labs as realistic as possible, Jones said instructors use various kinds of simulation equipment and task fellow students to act as role players for different scenarios.
“We use our wealth of knowledge as instructors and our years of experience to put together scenarios based on calls that we have run in the past – the ones that made us scratch our heads and think, ‘Man, I wish I had learned how to handle that in school,’” he said. “And that’s what we’ve done to make the learning match what the job is.”
In the future, Jones said he anticipates Aiken’s programs to become even more competitive in the long run and receive an abundance of applications to the point where more intense screening might need to be utilized.
For those interested in enrolling in Aiken Technical College’s EMS programs, please visit atc.edu to complete the free online application.
