2024 Noncredit Exemplary Award Winner

NONCREDIT WORKFORCE PROGRAM
Midlands Technical College, SC
EMT Apprenticeship Program

South Carolina, and the nation as a whole, are facing a critical shortage of trained Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). In 2019, studies conducted by the South Carolina EMS Association found that the number of students signing up and graduating from EMT courses had declined by 40%. The same study also discovered that turnover was a huge problem, with more than 70% of EMTs leaving the profession after just eight years. With an aging population creating heightened demand for healthcare professionals, this shortage has become a crisis.

Medshore Ambulance Services knows this problem very well and describes the shortage as their own personal pandemic. As the largest privately-owned ambulance service in South Carolina, they have long explored creative options for how to find and retain quality employees. In February 2021, Medshore began providing transportation services for a large hospital system in the Midlands. This magnified their hiring needs significantly.

Medshore knew that they couldn’t count on being able to meet these increased talent needs by just posting advertisements. They needed to find a way to expand their applicant pool and grow their own workforce. They approached Midlands Technical College (MTC) to develop a partnership to offer interested applicants the opportunity to become EMT Basic Apprentices.

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