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Hi Rob,
I'm currently working as an NHS Paramedic and have been in the Ambulance service for 6 years.
Firstly, congratulations on gaining a place on the Paramedic course. I appreciate there must have been some fierce competition for places.
As this is a relatively new way of gaining the Paramedic qualification it would be difficult to comment on what potential employers will prefer, however, I would suspect that they may prefer you to have a bit of a post qualification track record.
I appreciate that you will do a fair amount of time on your clinical placements on the Ambulances and in A&E but I'm sure you would agree that time served gaining experience will be worth more ultimately. Knowledge is only half the package.
A few of the companies that I've contacted for employment specified that they wanted 2 years post qualification experience as a Paramedic for the vacancies they had.
If you can get a good quality CP/PSD qual under your belt then effectively you have more skills to sell yourself to a future employer. I'm not saying that you will get more money but for example, if you were an employer and you had two medics going for the same spot but one happened to have a CP qual, who would you choose? (dependent on theatre of work and past experience of applicants of course) The other thing to consider is how much of a "word of mouth" industry it is, so get out there and network. This site is a great start.
With regards to the off shore medic side of things, I'm afraid that I have no experience, sorry. I'm sure one of the other medics will be able to help you though.
Good to hear from you and good luck with the course.
Regards,
Paul.
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