Kaitlin Schroeder
Dayton Daily News, Ohio
DAYTON, Ohio — Kettering Health Network’s transportation service is going to pay tuition and full-time wages for 24 candidates who attend the emergency medical technicians academy at Butler Tech next year.
The goal is to build up the pipeline of workers for Kettering Mobile Care, which transports patients between the health network’s hospitals, emergency departments and outpatient facilities.
“It’s a great investment in our community,” Dereck Pristas, president of Kettering Mobile Care. “We are creating career opportunities for 24 people and helping to fill a need for EMTs in southwest Ohio.”
The program will cost Kettering Mobile Care about $150,000. The eight-week class begins January 6, 2020.
Pristas said they will pay all tuition costs, including books, program fees and their National Registry testing fee. The will also pay each candidate a wage as a student to go to school full time and after eight weeks they’ll finish the program as a certified EMT with a guaranteed job at Kettering Health Network as a Mobile Care EMT.
Pristas said in a statement that he anticipates the program will benefit local public safety partners, since some of the students may work part time for local fire departments when not on duty with Kettering Mobile Care.
For more information or to be considered for the EMT Academy scholarship, contact Kettering Mobile Care recruiter Jon Tipton at 937-212-1699 or jon.tipton@ketteringhealth.org.
AMR, a national company that provides patient transportation for Dayton-based Premier Health, also just announced a program to pay candidates as they go through the EMT training process and become certified.
AMR is offering to pay people who participate in its first new class in Dayton, expected to begin Jan. 24. There are 20 slots open for the first class, and AMR expects to hire about 50 EMTs in the Dayton area next year, Robben said.
Candidates selected for the program are immediately hired as employees and are compensated as they attend AMR’s EMT basic certification course.
Interested applicants can visit the AMR website at www.amr.net and select the Dayton, Ohio, Careers Section. They also text EMSJOBS to 97211.
The median pay in the Ohio for an EMT was $32,200 per year as of 2018. Nationally, employment of EMTs and paramedics is projected to grow 7% from 2018 to 2028, faster than the average for all occupations.
EMTs and paramedics typically complete a postsecondary educational program and also need to become licensed by the state.
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©2019 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)