Did I miss where it said how long the classes were and how often? Back when I went to basic school, it was 2 nights a week, for 3 hours. The lectures were very dry and boring. So most of class would read the chapters during class and not pay much attention to the instructors since they were mostly idiots. For example, saying thins like "we came to a car crash, the car was on it's roof, possible rollover".
Given there is not much to be taught at the basic level, but these are the basic skills and knowledge to build on. The kind of medics you see who are very proficient at their jobs, probably weren't crappy EMT's. This is why I feel you shouldn't run an EMT course like it is an assembly line or showing them how to build a house. This is important stuff and should be taken very seriously. Running people through a course just to get them through and out on the street is a very bad idea.
"Twelve students crammed into an ambulance -- not for treatment, but training."
Yea, bad idea. How much can one person learn an environment like that. When you have a ratio of many students to few instructors, the system fails. You are left to learn many things on your own. Education in EMS should NOT be taught in lecture format in my honest opinion. We can all read. We don't need you to read to us what is in the book.
There is a course run near me, that is one month. It is every day, for 8 hours a day. I have worked around some of the people that took this course, and for the most part, they are morons. Couldn't take blood pressures properly, not knowing how to put on splits, failing at the most basic things and, just plain out not knowing what to do.
That being said, some of the people from these same classes do very well out in the field. Mostly because they put in the extra effort beyond the classroom and took things seriously. Not just went through the steps of the class.
The cost of the program also seems kind of crazy to me. I am not sure of the going rate on school these days for EMT, but when I took the class, it was $50.