Creating Great EMTs

The fact is, unfortunately, that it is very difficult to create great all-around EMTs if their only exposure to EMS is on a college campus. Here is why I think this, and I hope that someone can suggest a way to overcome some of the issues I will point out here.

Firstly, we are serving a specific population that is not representative of the general public, and thus see a subset of the injuries and illnesses that EMTs are trained for. This results in these skills getting rusty, or not ever being practiced outside the classroom. While collegiate EMS may practice in sports injuries, EToH medical, general sickness, and so forth, we don't deal with many cardiac issues, motor vehicle accidents, geriatric illnesses, or care of infants and pediatrics. Our patient population is mostly in a specific age range, and their environment predisposes them to certain mechanisms-of-injury and certain medical issues. Some other skills are practiced only in limited sub-sets on a college campus. Things like diabetic emergencies, respiratory distress, and spinal immobilization are situations that are utilized, but often the cases that use these skills are not representative of all cases. For example, respiratory distress too often is seen as a result of EToH consumption on a college campus, and this threatens to allow the EMT to forget the other possible issues that could cause these conditions.
The second issue is that many EMTs attending college have not been working much, if at all, in a municipal/private system before joining a collegiate squad. Many are first exposed to EMS in college, and become EMTs while in college, or some come in with an EMT license but with little outside experience (partially limited by the fact that most states require EMTs to be 18 years of age, and how this coincides with college).
So how can EMTs affiliated with college squads become well-rounded EMTs who are prepared to handle all types of emergencies? Just because a college squad mainly sees only a subset of medical conditions does not mean they will only see these. Furthermore, EMTs who leave college squads should be well prepared to enter the EMS workforce, if they so choose, in a volunteer or paid position after college. It would be a shame if they have forgotten some of the skills they learned in EMT class just because they haven't practiced them recently. The only way that I have found to be effective is for EMTs to do ride-alongs, or affiliate with, a second agency (municipal or private) that can allow them to interact with patients and conditions more representative of the general population. This, I believe, offers the best training to truly make someone a better EMT. However, such an arrangement may be difficult to create due to scheduling as well as policies that the outside agency may have.
I would be interested in hearing other ideas for EMT quality-improvement that you may have, or ideas on ways that "large-scale" programs to get collegiate EMS providers working with other EMS agencies could be implemented (instead of on an individual, EMT initiated basis).
Improving the breadth of the skills that collegiate EMS providers keep sharp is vital to providing better patient care and increasing the respect afforded to collegiate squads.