Medical Lab Technician Courses Train Students for Great Responsibility

When you hand over a specimen sample, take a blood test or head into the hospital for an ECG, MIR or other type of testing, you want to rest assured that the Medical Lab Technician handling any of these aspects of your health is well trained and responsible. Those interested in becoming lab professionals can participate in Centennial College’s respected Medical Laboratory Technician program, which results in an Ontario College Certificate and the eligibility for certification as a Medical Laboratory Assistant/Technician with the Ontario Society of Medical Laboratory Technologists and the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. In addition to this certificate, the one-year program prepares Medical Lab Technicians for responsibilities such as: the collection of blood samples, performing ECGs, the use of laboratory equipment, fluency in medical terminology, close patient contact with a professional attitude and demeanor, and more.

The Medical Laboratory Technician offering is a collaboration between the School of Community and Health Studies and School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science. In addition, representatives from hospitals, private laboratories and the Ministry of Health provide curriculum input on a continuous basis, ensuring information taught is relevant. As such, Medical Laboratory Technician courses cover numerous topics essential to being field-ready upon graduation, including applied anatomy and physiology, transcultural health, clinical laboratory techniques, clinical data management, practical microbiology, cytology and histology; specimen collection and processing and more. As students are based at Centennial College’s most high-tech campus and have full access to state-of-the-art labs, this ensures they get much hands-on practice in their spare time and during their courses.

To round out on-campus Medical Laboratory Technician courses, students participate in a clinical internship, under the direction of a medical laboratory assistant. Aside from allowing them to apply what they have learned prior to graduation, this experience ensures that Medical Lab Technician students have an easy transition into the workplace environment.

As a result of the Medical Laboratory Technician program of Centennial College, students are prepared to function as effective members of a medical laboratory team, specializing in one of five different areas (blood banking, chemistry, hematology, immunology, or microbiology). With the role of the medical technician expanding, there are numerous opportunities in hospital laboratories, public health laboratories, reference laboratories, biomedical companies, universities, industrial medical laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, forensic medicine and the armed forces, government research and veterinary laboratories.

Applicants to the Medical Laboratory Technician offering are required to have completed at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older; compulsory English 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent; math 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent; and Biology 11C or U or equivalent. Please note that having minimum requirements doesn’t guarantee entry and English proficiency is considered in the admissions process.