Care experience
You must have some experience of delivering care in a professional or voluntary capacity. This can include caring for family members, volunteering with youth groups, being part of the army/navy/air cadets, or St John’s Ambulance. Evidence of the experience gained, understanding of the profession, and a genuine, reasoned commitment to studying a professional course must be explicit in your personal statement to be selected for interview.
Personal statement
Your personal statement provides the opportunity to express your personal qualities and attributes related to a rewarding career as a paramedic. The statement should include a clear articulation of:
- Rationale for your choice of career
- How your personality lends itself to a career as a paramedic
- Evidence of investigation into the career of a paramedic that demonstrates insight of the role
- What attracts you to the profession
- Personal qualities and transferable skills that may contribute to success in the course and profession
- What sports/activities you enjoy and what skills you've developed.
Interview
All applicants must attend an interview as part of the selection process, which includes a group activity and an individual interview. Your values, problem solving, and communication skills will be assessed.
Personal qualities
We select students based on their knowledge, motivation, experience, values, and behaviours, not just academic ability.
You need to demonstrate an ability to:
- Study academic subjects at the level of the course
- Debate topics and issues
- Draw on conclusions from written material
- Study independently and as part of a group
- Use computers and technology associated with teaching, learning, and assessment
- Interact with patients and colleagues in a caring and compassionate manner
- Demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment to, the course.
Fitness to practise
Medical assessments of your mental and physical health and disclosure of criminal convictions apply to all paramedic courses and are based on current HCPC requirements. Paramedics are registered healthcare professionals and the ability to practise safely, effectively, and professionally is essential, so all applicants are required to follow our fitness to practise procedures. This means you're required to complete the following:
- A health declaration form. Here, you must demonstrate that you're of good health, good character, and can satisfactorily pass occupational health screening. In addition, you'll be required to attend an Occupational Health Assessment with an NHS Trust. The University will, taking into account current HCPC regulations, make any reasonable adjustments if required for candidates who declare a specific learning difficulty, long-term health condition, or disability. Please refer to the HEOPS paramedic student fitness standards(opens in new tab).
- A self-declaration form about your conduct
- Obtain an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. The cost of the DBS check is covered by the University.
Instructions on how you complete these checks will be sent to you once you hold a conditional firm offer with us. These forms are then reviewed alongside your application, and you must meet both the academic and fitness to practise requirements before you'll be given an unconditional offer. If you're successful, you'll also need to complete an annual declaration form to confirm you're fit and there are no changes to your DBS.
Driving
A driving licence isn't a mandatory requirement, however, you'll be expected to travel to placements and shift patterns may not always fit with the availability of public transport. Where possible, we do try to arrange placements near to term-time addresses, but this isn’t always possible. We strongly encourage you to try to gain a full driving licence by the end of the course to enhance your job opportunities and employability. A C1 driving classification is not an entry requirement for the course.
