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Five years after broaching the idea of creating a training center to help deal with a shortage of ambulance workers, AMED has scheduled an emergency medical technician class at its new headquarters building in Lakemont.
A six-week, 40-hours-per-week, "academy-style" class will begin Oct. 4 with 11 students, AMED Executive Director Gary Watters told the board Monday.
Watters is hoping the class will help the organization fill its current 10 full-time openings.
AMED chose the students based on interviews last week.
"We tried to be selective," he said.
The students will be going "from untrained to trained," he said.
Fred Ferguson of AMED will teach the class. Ferguson is one of several AMED employees qualified to teach EMT courses.
"It will be a really stringent class," he said.
Students will be required to attend in uniform, and they will be expected to show up on time, Watters said.
"We are going to know the good employees before we get to the end," he said. "That's the goal."
The course requires patient care contact, which will be done through ambulance ride-alongs, Watters said in answer to a question from board member Brad Kissell.
The organization will not charge tuition, Watters said.
A recent legislative move directing some traffic ticket money for rural training may help, he said.
AMED will not be training paramedics for now, even though there is a shortage of them too, because the organization is not accredited for that, Watters said.
"We are going to test the waters with this program," Watters said. "Once we have perfected it, we'll look at other avenues."
There is currently sufficient paramedic instruction available in Johnstown and Indiana, he said. That is not the case with EMT instruction.
There are already three applications for the next EMT class.
The five years that have elapsed since the idea of the training center surfaced -- which have included construction delays, some attributable to COVID-19 -- have been like "trying to (steer) a pontoon boat through the mud," Watters said. "But we're finally getting there."
Responders have been stationed at the Lakemont facility for months, but the office transition still hasn't taken place -- although it's close.
Workers recently finished replacing problem carpet, Watters said.
There is also a need for additional furniture.