The ACT's ambulance service has welcomed nine new intensive care paramedics, including the last cohort to be qualified under the territory's vocational training scheme.
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The graduates have come on board at a time of sweeping change for the ACT Emergency Services Agency after it announced a sweeping overhaul of emergency services in November.
ESA Commissioner Dominic Lane said the agency's transition from offering a vocational training system to tertiary entry level education for all paramedics reflected an Australia-wide shift.
He said it was part of "the growth and the importance of paramedicine across the nation".
"This is one of the last transitions of that here in the ACT and we've had people that have done the degrees coming through the system over the past four or five years, well and truly embedded into the process, and once they get their clinical authority to practice from the ACT Ambulance chief officer, they can go about their business," Mr Lane said.
ACT Ambulance Service chief officer Peter Le Lievre said the graduation represented the end of an era for the agency's last "home-grown and home-trained" paramedics, but having only paramedics who were tertiary-educated cemented the service's professionalism.
Mr Lane said the new intensive care paramedics, who were recognised at a graduation ceremony on Friday, would play a crucial role as the agency grew and positioned itself for the future through upcoming reforms.
"The government's committed to significant improvements and reforms and resources for our ACT Ambulance Service as demand continues to grow, that's been a key part of this particular program."
Former Buckinghamshire fire chief Mark Jones is set to the agency's structural reform agenda, which will aim in part to slash duplication and drive efficiency in the ambulance, fire, and state emergency services.
The agenda drew criticism from the ACT Opposition, who believed the agenda added an extra layer of bureaucracy, after it was announced last month and was met with "surprise and concern" from the United Firefighters Union.
But Mr Lane said: "We're changing to meet the needs of the community, we're changing to make sure we resource appropriately, we're changing to make sure we provide a sustainable level of service to the community."
Mr Jones arrives in January and will prepare a series of reports on areas marked for reform, including communications centre reform and changes to the structure of ACT Fire and Rescue, that will then be handed to the ACT government.
Mr Le Lieve stepped into the role of ambulance chief temporarily after the commissioner announced last month that long-serving ambulance chief David Foot would move to a new role as director of risk and planning.
That position is expected to be advertised as part of a national recruitment drive early next year.
