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Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy (QCESA)

All Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) education and development is coordinated and managed by the School of Ambulance and Paramedic Studies located on Level Four of the Lutwyche Centro Shopping Centre in Brisbane, Australia. The School has a team of dedicated people who, in conjunction with the regional education teams, provide training to approximately 3500 uniformed and non-uniformed personnel.

The role of the School of Ambulance and Paramedic Studies is to prepare staff for service in the QAS and enhance and develop the performance levels of all ambulance personnel to the standard of excellence expected by the community. The School works closely with seven Regional Staff Development Units to ensure the spectrum of education and development needs within the Service is addressed, including clinical, technical, managerial and professional development to enable QAS personnel to function in an Emergency Medical Systems environment statewide.

The strategic priority of ambulance education is to ensure our people keep up with contemporary clinical and patient care practice in the dynamic and rapidly changing field of prehospital care. The education team extends to a wider team of on-road ambulance officers, medical, nursing and other specialists. These specialists work with our education staff to ensure recruits, existing officers and advanced care personnel deliver care in accordance with worldwide health care best practice for all Queenslanders.

QAS is a Registered Training Organisation under the Department of Education, Training and the Arts for delivery of its accredited programs from the HLT07 Health Training Package. A range of non-accredited courses are also delivered by the School and the Regional Staff Development Units. QAS meets the requirements of Vocational Education and Training (VET) through a competency-based approach. This covers the preparation, delivery and assessment of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of its personnel and their capacity to apply these attributes to operational service.

The School is divided into the following broad areas:

Paramedic Clinical Education (Certificate to Graduate Diploma level);
Communications Education (Certificate level);
In-Service Education (non-accredited) and Professional Development programs; and
Learning Support and Production.

QAS has established partnerships with a number of external education providers including:

QAS Education is delivered through face to face learning, and flexible delivery including the DES Learning Management System (DES LMS). Delivery strategies include print-based resources, multimedia, online facilitation, webconferencing, videoconferencing and incorporate both on- and off-the-job training.
For more information about our accredited programs: