Lone Star College-Montgomery has expanded its public service offerings to include Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic Training in partnership with the Montgomery County Hospital District (MCHD) beginning in the fall 2009 semester.
“We are in a great need of qualified EMT’s and paramedics to meet the growing demands on the emergency medical system,” said Allen Johnson, MCHD chief executive officer.
“For 10 years, MCHD has offered EMT and paramedic classes through our internal training program with excellent success rates on national credentialing exams. The only drawback was our inability to confer college credit. For EMS to progress as a profession, we need more college graduates,” said Johnson.
“Our hope is an MCHD/LSCS partnership will continue the tradition of education excellence and further benefit our students, the community and our profession by awarding college credit for successful completers,” he added.
LSCS offers four levels of Emergency Medical Services Professions (EMSP) training programs; an Associate of Applied Science degree, a Paramedic Certificate, an EMT-Intermediate Certificate, and an EMT-Basic Course.
The job market and earning potential for EMTs and paramedics is extremely high. There are on average 2,800 paramedic job openings each year in Texas and a projected 28 percent increase in the need for EMTs and paramedics over the next seven years statewide.
The annual base salary for an EMT-Intermediate in this region is $37,500 and $47,000 for paramedics.
“Our college appreciates this partnership and all the great support that Allen Johnson and the hospital district have shown as we start this program to better serve our community,” said Barbara Buchanan, LSC-Montgomery dean of instruction.
“At LSC- Montgomery we are dedicated to quality in our workforce programs and expect this to be extremely beneficial in our service area,” said Buchanan.
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, and LSC-Tomball, six centers and Lone Star College-University Center. With more than 50,000 students in credit classes this spring, LSCS is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and third largest community college system in Texas. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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