New AMR EMTs earned while they learned

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — The Waterbury area has a new batch of EMTs as part of a new trend.  Instead of paying for their training, they got a paycheck while being trained to save lives.

American Medical Response in Waterbury is Connecticut’s latest emergency response company to roll out an “earn while you learn” program. On Friday, 14 new EMTs graduated, the first class in AMR history to be paid while they learned.

“Not a lot of people get the opportunity to actually receive a paycheck every Friday and learn at the same time,” new EMT Caitlin Avery said. “Other programs, you have to put up 2000 dollars to be in the program.”

“A lot of people they see the money, and they are afraid to kind of go for it, and we are kind of hoping to nix that and with bringing that aspect of I don’t know if I can afford this to just pushing it to the side and making it so that people don’t have to worry too much,” AMR Lead EMT Instructor Madeleine Frew said.

Several ambulance services in Connecticut now have “Earn While You Learn” programs. AMR said diversity and inclusion are a big part of the program. They said 65% of their graduating class are people of color, including three bilingual EMTs.

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