FLASHING lights, blaring sirens, a patient urgently in need of care and paramedics rushing to help... the closest most of us get to scenes like this is ER or Casualty, but for some, it's what they've desperately wanted to do for a living for years.

Now, thanks to a new course at the University of Worcester, some students are finally getting the chance to follow their dream.

The university launched a new specialist course last month, designed to train the next generation of paramedics.

The first year of the Pre-Hospital, Unscheduled & Emergency Care foundation degree course - one of only a handful in the UK - has already attracted 29 students.

The course was launched on January 29 and will see students carry out a range of practical work-based training and in-depth theoretical study, including advanced anatomy and physiology.

They will also complete more than 1,500 hours of practical service during the two-year course, which is being run in partnership with the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Stacey Hill, aged 21, from Warndon, Worcester, started the course after first completing a degree in public services at the University of Worcester.

She said: "I've wanted to become a paramedic since the age of 14. I have no idea why I wanted to do it, it's just always been there so I don't know what first attracted me to it. Nothing else interested me.

"If I couldn't be a paramedic, I wouldn't have a clue what else to be."

Stacey has been out on call with both the County Air Ambulance and ambulance service already and is a community first responder, trained to attend life-threatening emergency calls, and can provide first aid to a casualty in the minutes before an emergency ambulance arrives.

But she said she had not worked as a community first responder much because she had been concentrating her efforts on getting on to the university course.

"When I finished school, I went to college and did a national diploma in public services for two years and then I did a higher national diploma after that and then I did the degree for a year," she said.

"As soon as I finished my degree, the paramedic course popped up, which was perfect."

She said her fellow students had all wanted to be paramedics and had finally got the chance thanks to the new course.

"The best bit is being able to help people. You're making a difference, it's a worthwhile job," Stacey said.

She said the course was going well so far, but was proving challenging.

"It's hard work, especially for people who haven't done anatomy and physiology," she said.

"I haven't done any of it before but I will get through it with a lot of hard work and help from my classmates. I qualify in two years so within three I hope to be a paramedic. That's what I want to do and maybe work my way up."

Steven Barlow, 30, a fellow student on the course, is from Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. He works in paediatric intensive care at Diana Princess of Wales Children's Hospital in Birmingham and has also been a community first responder for five years.

He said he had always wanted to train as a paramedic and the course was proving all he had hoped.

"Ever since I was a dot, it's all I have wanted to do. Its just something I can't explain," he said.

"I have tried other things and I really enjoyed nursing but working in the ambulance service has always been the thing that stuck out. The opportunities have not been there until now. The timing is right."

He said the students on the course were of different ages and from different backgrounds.

"Personally, the best parts for me have been meeting new people and being on the course, getting to know different people.

"Some have been in the service before, some haven't, but everybody wants to do the course."

He said they worked one 12-hour shift a week in the first semester, and in the second would do 24 hours a week, as well as placements.

"At the moment, we are doing two uni days and we have to do assessments as well. We also do re-enactments. It's very challenging academically and goes into quite a lot of depth.

"I am really enjoying the academic side of it. I have really enjoyed doing some of the theory-based work and learning more about adult care.

"It's been such a long time since I did any other education. It's about learning in a different way and writing assessments based on fact. That's all a new thing for me so that will be my biggest challenge.

"We are learning to be paramedics so we are learning to look at things differently. We are very much in the early stages at the moment."

At the end of the course, Mr Barlow hope his dream of being a paramedic will finally come true.

"I would like to join the ambulance service, that's my aim," he said.

"We are hoping jobs will become available for paramedics, but this foundation degree will give me the entry requirements for other areas."

Course leader Sharon Hardwick said: "Paramedics are an essential front-line service dealing with a vast range of emergency medical illnesses and traumatic injury.

"This course will be challenging but very rewarding. We're looking forward to providing students with sound theory and practice and fully equip them for their future careers."

So, while the rest of us stick to watching it on the telly, we will rely on these students to become the next generation of paramedics.

Who knows, perhaps we will need their help one day.

What the course involves

Entry requirements

* Normally 80 UCAS points or equivalent but students with non-standard entry qualifications are welcomed.

* Consideration will be given to those with relevant work experience and/or certified learning which demonstrates an ability to study at this level.

* Students will be interviewed and may exceptionally be asked to submit an essay to demonstrate level of ability to study at Foundation degree level.

* A Criminal Records Bureau disclosure is required.

Teaching and assessment

* The course consists of 14 modules, seven in year one and seven in year two, including one double module, carrying double credit, for work-based learning.

* Year one will include modules such as Introduction to pre-hospital and emergency care and Introduction to anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology.

* In year two, modules will include Advanced anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology, and Working with people with mental health needs.

* Students will spend at least half of the course in a relevant work environment.