A new program in Camden is teaching young students to become EMTs.

It's giving high schoolers an opportunity to get training and work towards a job after graduation.

Officials also hope the program attracts more young people to careers in the medical fields as a shortage of EMTs and other medical professionals continues to be a concern, both here in the state and nationwide.

Melissa Rose Cooper reports from Camden.

Rosa Vicente has dreams of earning a bachelor's degree in nursing one day.

So the high school senior is glad she's getting some hands on experience in the medical field now, before beginning her college journey.

We're learning how to like, actually save people's lives.

So it's like you just got to pay attention on what you're learning.

Try to really, like, consume as much.

And guess a lot of questions here.

If you don't ask questions like I feel like some people would be lost.

There's a lot of questions to be asked.

So at the end of the day, I feel like a lot of questions, no matter what it is just ask.

And that's exactly what Vincente and her classmates are making sure they do during their training sessions for this EMT program at Virtua Health.

The health care system.

Teaming up with the Camden City School District to provide high school students with the opportunity to learn how to become an EMT.

It's intense.

We have 41 chapters that we do ideally in about 16 weeks.

The program that we're running now for 60 is going to go about 27 weeks.

It is an hour based program.

We start with the basics, with basic medical and learn with body systems, which is what they're learning now.

They just learn respiratory and cardiac.

We start going into trauma shortly after that.

Childbirth, environmental, geriatrics, pediatrics.

And we end it with some extrication and terrorism.

The educational team that we put together here is is really top notch in this area.

The students are offered this education in a very, very comfortable and safe environment.

And I would say coming out of this program, the opportunity it provides for a career in health care at Virtua.

Everything from, you know, staying in a career as an EMT, you know, becoming a paramedic, moving to be a physician or anything else across our health system.

Key elements since Jim Newman, vice president of patient logistics at Virtua Health, says the entire medical industry continues to deal with a workforce shortage.

And we've seen with generating generational changes that we really needed to take opportunities anywhere we could find them to bring students into into the health care field at a very, very early age and keep them interested and keep them keep them engaged for for our continued growth.

Camden City Schools State District Superintendent Katrina McCombs says the students ability to take part in the program while they're still in high school is a true testament of their desire to succeed.

I think it's important that we expose our young people to rigorous situations and challenging experiences while they have the supports as young adults, as they're growing forward in our schools, to our guidance counselors, to our teachers to help them navigate so that when they are on their own, they at least have had some experiences where they had to work through difficult situations.

But our students are absolutely fantastic and phenomenal.

Once students complete their program and pass a national certification test, they'll be able to work anywhere as an EMT.

Vicente says she wants to take full advantage of the opportunity and plans to work as an EMT while taking her college classes.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Melissa Rose Cooper.