NEWLY qualified paramedics in Wales have been told there are no jobs available for them this year, with the Welsh Ambulance Service instead urging graduates to consider applying for technician roles or seeking work elsewhere.
The development marks a major escalation in a row already exposed by The Herald, which revealed that final-year student paramedics had been told there would be no newly qualified paramedic posts available in Wales during the 2026-27 financial year. A second Herald report then disclosed an internal email sent after a board meeting on Wednesday, March 26, confirming that the trust “does not require any NQPs” this year.
That internal message, seen by The Herald, said employing newly qualified paramedics in 2026 was “simply not affordable” and stated that the service currently had “more paramedics than required” and enough lead practitioners to cover short and medium-term vacancies.
Now, in an on-the-record statement, Carl Kneeshaw, Director of People at the Welsh Ambulance Service, has publicly confirmed the same position.
He said the service was navigating a “difficult financial and operational landscape” and that recruitment decisions had to be based on current staffing levels, service demand, workforce skill mix and affordability.
Mr Kneeshaw said: “Regrettably, as things stand, we are not in a position to employ newly qualified paramedics this year.”
He said graduates wanting to build a career with the Welsh Ambulance Service should explore other opportunities, including Emergency Medical Technician roles, and also consider positions with other ambulance services and organisations across health and social care.
For many students, that will be a bitter blow. They have spent three years training specifically to qualify as paramedics, often on publicly supported courses, only to now be told they may need to take lower-grade frontline roles or look beyond Wales for work.
The row has now triggered political backlash.
Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar described the situation as “staggering and deeply frustrating”.
He said: “We are training paramedics at public expense, only to tell them there are no jobs for them in Wales and they should consider going abroad.
“At a time when ambulance response times are still far too long and patients are coming to harm and waiting in pain, this simply makes no sense.”
Mr Millar said the development showed a serious failure in NHS workforce planning and accused the Welsh Labour Government of mishandling the situation.
The controversy also revives wider questions about how NHS staffing is being planned in Wales.
The Herald previously reported that opportunities for newly qualified paramedics had already been shrinking, with only around a third of 2025 graduates initially securing paramedic posts, while others were instead offered technician roles.
For critics, the contradiction is obvious: Wales is helping fund the training of future paramedics, but the ambulance service is now telling at least some of those graduates to take lower-grade roles, apply elsewhere, or even seek work overseas.
The Welsh Ambulance Service, however, is likely to argue that the decision reflects financial pressures and the current make-up of its workforce, rather than any lack of respect for newly qualified staff.
With the Senedd election due on Thursday, May 7, the issue is fast becoming more than an employment dispute. It is shaping up as a test of whether ministers can justify spending public money training frontline NHS staff while the national ambulance service says it cannot afford to hire them.
