PEOSTA, Iowa – Northeast Iowa Community College will start offering gap funding this fall to help cover the cost of tuition and books for those taking classes to become emergency medical technicians.
The move is part of an effort to help recruit a more diverse workforce for the all-white Dubuque Fire Department.
Dubuque City Council Member Ric Jones manages NICC’s Emergency Medical Services training courses. He said minorities rarely, if ever, register for EMT and paramedic training and that he believes the cost of the classes plays a significant factor.
“It’s a very white workforce in my whole profession, not just at Dubuque Fire, and the fire department is trying to take some affirmative steps to address that,” he said.
The department currently consists of four women and 85 men, all of whom are white.
The National Fire Protection Association reports 82 percent of firefighters nationwide are white, 7.7 percent are black and 9.5 percent are Hispanic or Latino.
While financial aid will be available to all applicants based on need, not race or ethnicity, Jones said he hopes removing that financial barrier will entice more people to consider the job. That could widen the Dubuque Fire Department’s applicant pool eventually to include individuals from minority populations that otherwise might not have considered a career with the department.
Jones said adding diversity to the department means better patient care when paramedics respond to medical calls.
“When you’re in a care relationship with a patient, you need some trust,” Jones said. “We’re still going to have a lot of all-white crews showing up, but if people in the minority communities know there are people of color working in these roles, that elevates the level of credibility of the whole organization in their eyes and their comfort level when they’re in distress – to see someone who looks like them.”
NICC also will offer those classes at its downtown Dubuque location, not only at the Peosta campus.
Students who complete the EMT classes will be given serious consideration for employment with NICC business partner Paramount Ambulance Services, Jones said. They also will be eligible to complete the paramedic training course, which is a requirement for all Dubuque firefighters.
“Most of the new people we hire come through NICC’s paramedic program,” said Dubuque Fire Chief Rick Steines. “We see NICC as a good partner for us to try to increase their student diversity, which in turn increases the applicants we have to potentially become firefighters.”
Most Dubuque firefighters have gone through NICC’s EMT program and taken jobs with private ambulance services or been part of smaller, volunteer fire departments while working toward their paramedic certification, Steines said.
“It gets them that experience and get a look at the job, and hopefully, they want to become a paramedic,” he said. “We want to let everyone in the community know this is a career we think highly of and that they might want to take a look at.”
He said the department is working with NICC to promote its EMT classes and the expanded financial assistance to various local groups and organizations that represent Dubuque’s minority populations.
Jones said the financial aid for EMT classes at NICC will be available for the next session, scheduled to begin in mid-October.
