FAQ – Do I need good high school grades to be a paramedic?

Learning to become a paramedic is a totally different journey from being at school.

When you leave school, everything changes and it’s your opportunity to decide on what you’d like to do for a career – you’re in control.

It does not matter what grades you got at school, because learning to become a paramedic involves many things that you never did at school; and that’s the exciting bit.

Starting out on a course such as the Certificate IV in Health Care is the best place to start. You get the opportunity to learn a lot of new skills and cover interesting topics like advanced communication, Work Health & Safety, scene management, law and ethics, how to communicate with patients from different cultural backgrounds etc.

Of course there is the clinical side to becoming a paramedic too – bus as a Cert IV qualified medic, your responsibility is to diagnose, treat and stabilise a patient and seek further medical assistance from paramedics.

The more you advance in your training, the more you will be exposed to advanced English, math and of course biology, anatomy and pharmacology.

All of these skills are required, so it is important to have some understanding of these topics – and if you currently lack the confidence in these areas, there’s plenty of help out there to bring you up to speed.


About the Australian Paramedical College

The Australian Paramedical College is the largest pre-hospital health care training provider in Australia.

We offer three courses in the health scope:

Our nationally recognised paramedical pathway training provides a flexible and affordable training pathway to employment in the private sector, or as a stepping stone to university to study a Bachelor of Paramedic Science. APC offers you the opportunity to become an emergency healthcare practitioner, regardless of your educational background. We believe you should still pursue your goals even if your school or college grades are not where they should be.

We live in an era where anything is possible when you put your mind to it. With advances in technology and learning methodologies, there is no reason why you can not follow your dreams and become a person who can save lives and contribute to the well-being of the community.

What is your career journey?

To discover how you can become a fully qualified Ambulance Paramedic or Basic/Advanced Life Support Medic, complete a personalised paramedical career development plan.