FERRIDAY — Technical education in the Miss-Lou will expand with the offering of three new classes at the Louisiana Technical College — Shelby M. Jackson campus.

Those classes include Emergency Medical Technician basic, EMT paramedic and pharmacy tech programs.

The core courses for the EMT paramedic program, which lasts approximately a year, will begin Monday.

The campus has already started the pre-requisite anatomy and physiology courses for the EMT paramedic program, which is regulated by the department of health and hospitals’ bureau of emergency medical services, Campus Dean Mignonne Ater said.

“We already have 15 to 18 students who took the prerequisites and some who already have their EMT basic, so the class starting next week is basically full,” Ater said.

The courses for the three-month long EMT basic program will begin May 18, and the school is still taking applications, Ater said.

The pharmacy tech program, however, already has a waiting list.

That’s because enrollment in the program is limited to 15 students by the state pharmacy board, Ater said.

“I have had a lot of interest voiced by students already,” she said.

The school will offer the pre-requisite courses, freshman orientation and introduction to computer, both this summer and again in the fall.

The two-semester program will begin in the fall.

Pharmacy tech students will finish the program with a certificate of technical studies and will be eligible to take the pharmacy tech certification test.

“They will do just like our nursing students do and will register to take the test at a Pierson testing center,” Ater said.

Local pharmacies have partnered with the college to serve as clinical settings for the pharmacy tech program.

“We have only had positive response from the community,” Ater said.