Highlighting disparities in public funding for student paramedics: Lee's story

Completing a degree is no easy achievement—especially for someone who has been out of education for a long time and is looking for a career change. For some, achieving a second degree can feel impossible.

When I was in the latter part of my school education, my advisers emphasised that completing a degree should be our ‘highest priority’ and even went so far as to make application compulsory. So I completed a degree.

When I graduated though, I still did not know what I wanted to do. So I spent my time working in an ambulance control room as an emergency medical dispatcher, and helped my mother to look after my grandfather. Other colleagues in the control room were looking at becoming paramedics, and it became clear that retraining was going to require another degree. It also became evident that funding arrangements within the NHS are constantly changing, and no one person seemed to have an answer about the availability of financial support.