The East of England Ambulance Service has announced another bid to encourage more people to start a new career in the ambulance service.

The new programme aims to recruit 400 student paramedics; contracts have already been offered to about 200 people and chief executive Anthony Marsh said the service was hoping that hundreds more potential applicants would come forward to fulfil the remaining 200.

He said: “We have the most ambitious paramedic recruitment campaign in the country.

“Not only have we already recruited more than 400 student paramedics, we are going to replicate that again this year. Taking on more paramedics will help us to continue to improve the caring service we give to patients.”

Student paramedics go through eight weeks of training in the classroom and three weeks of blue-light driver training before starting on the front-line. They then receive three more weeks of classroom training in their first nine months as students.

During the 12 – 18 months which follow, studies involved a mix of classroom and practical work delivered through either the University of East Anglia or Anglia Ruskin University.

To apply to become a student paramedic, check out http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/working-for-us/student-paramedic-programme.htm