Medical Laboratory Education -- Bachelor's versus Certification

At first glance, the question of which of a bachelor's degree at a nationally recognized university or a three year certificate at a technology institute is more employable looks rhetorical.

Of COURSE a bachelor's degree in Medical Laboratory Science will get you job in a hospital faster...right?

Wrong.

One of the traps students fresh from high school fall in each year is thinking that a Bachelor's in Medical Laboratory Science from UBC/U of Calgary will enable you to work in hospital laboratories. They don't. Such programs are for job steams that focus on either university research(mainly in universities, so you will be competing will all those other Science degree graduates for graduate student salaries), or for those who already have a certificate and are returning to gain ART or management level equivilents.*

In order to work in a hospital laboratory here in British Columbia, one must pass the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science national exam.

In order to be eligible to even take said exam, one must have taken an accreditted CSMLS course. The University of British Columbia is not accreditted by CSMLS, so thus you are not even eligible to take the qualifying exam.

Thus, to become employable, the student rockets off to to BCIT, NAIT, or SAIT to take the full three year course to qualify for hospital work. That's right -- seven year's minimum of school to start working, if you take the university route. Ug. And that's wishing that you knew straight from the starting gate what you wanted to do with your life. Many of my classmates at BCIT had bachelor's or Master's degrees in biology, chemistry, and microbiology before starting at BCIT.

If you're interested in becoming a medical laboratory technologist, there is a post coming about just that.



*The exception here the Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science of the University of Alberta. The program is four years in length, and focuses on university theory, the nitty gritty needed in the workplace, and the knowledge base to pass the CSMLS exam.