Run the tests behind most diagnoses: blood, tissue, bacteria, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic code). Two to three years of school and good job prospects.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $81,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $52,000 at the lower end to about $102,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$10,300 to $31,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$81,000
Lower end
$52,000
Upper end
$102,000
Job Bank's national figures for medical laboratory technologists, 2023 to 2024: a median of $39 an hour, about $81,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end is $25.13 an hour and the upper end is $49 an hour. Hospital and public lab jobs are unionized with a pay grid. Shift premiums and overtime are on top.
$27.01 an hour
The first step for a medical technologist in Quebec's public health network
The same scale tops out at $42.31. New graduates in every province usually start on the first step of a hospital pay grid.
$45.79 an hour
The median in Alberta, about $95,000 a year
Ontario is next at $42, and Quebec and Nova Scotia have the lowest medians, $35.
Roughly, all in
$10,300 to $31,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year accredited program at the cheaper provincial rate, books and immunizations, the national certification exam at the member rate, and one year of provincial registration. The high end is a three year program at the top of the range with the exam taken at the non member rate. Provincial registration of 300 to 600 a year continues for as long as you practise. Clinical placement is long and usually unpaid, which is the cost this table hides.
Roughly $10,000 to $25,000 in tuition, for a job with a median pay of about $81,000 a year.
A defined-benefit pension
One that pays a set amount every month for life. HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Similar plans in other provinces.
Extended health and dental
Shift premiums
Labs run 24 hours, so evenings and nights pay extra.
Paid vacation and sick days
Typically 3 to 4 weeks to start.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Short, science-heavy, and the jobs are waiting when you finish.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 biology, chemistry and math. English too.
Accredited medical laboratory science program
2 to 3 years
A 2 to 3 year college diploma, or a 4-year degree at a few universities. You learn all five areas: chemistry, hematology, transfusion, microbiology and histology. The final months are a full-time unpaid clinical placement.
Write the national certification exam
After graduation
Most provinces, Ontario included, now use the exam run by CAMLPR (Canadian Alliance of Medical Laboratory Professionals Regulators). CSMLS (Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science) still runs its general exam for Alberta.
Register with your provincial regulator
A few weeks
In Ontario that is the CMLTO (College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario). Most provinces have a college.
Biology
Required.
Chemistry
Required. Half the lab is chemistry.
Math
Dilutions, quality control statistics.
Computer skills
Lab information systems and automated analyzers.
English
Precise written communication matters.
Programs are accredited nationally. Some examples:
Michener Institute (Toronto), Mohawk College, St. Clair College
Ontario
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology)
British Columbia
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology)
Alberta
Saskatchewan Polytechnic
Saskatchewan
NSCC (Nova Scotia Community College)
Nova Scotia
Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI (Prince Edward Island) and Newfoundland and Labrador each have a college that registers medical laboratory technologists, for example the CMLTO (College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario). Elsewhere, employers require national certification instead. Because the exam is national, moving provinces is simple. Medical laboratory assistants, a 1-year credential, are a separate and more limited job.
In Quebec the training is a 3 year CEGEP (public college) diploma, and the Quebec order issues your permit without the national exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V chemistry and physics, and Secondary IV math in the Technical and Scientific or Science option (or Secondary V Cultural, Social and Technical). That is Dawson's list.
Biomedical Laboratory Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
Code 140.C0, called Technologie d'analyses biomédicales in French. 3 years at one of 11 CEGEPs (public colleges), in English at Dawson, with an admission interview and hospital internships.
Join the OPTMQ (Ordre professionnel des technologistes médicaux du Québec)
After graduating
The Quebec order of medical technologists. Quebec graduates apply online with their diploma and pay the yearly dues to get on the roll.
Show French
A few weeks
Required by the French language charter. A Quebec high school diploma from 1986 on counts. Otherwise you pass the OQLF (Quebec French language office) exam, with a temporary permit meanwhile.
Optional national exam
Optional
Dawson graduates can also write the CAMLPR (Canadian Alliance of Medical Laboratory Professionals Regulators) exam, which helps if you move to another province.
In Quebec hospitals you are a technologiste médical (medical technologist). A Lanaudière health region posting lists the public network scale at $27.01 to $42.31 an hour. Dawson's internships run in Montreal hospitals such as the McGill University Health Centre, the Jewish General and the Lakeshore General.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Transfusion medicine (blood bank)
Matching blood for surgery and trauma. High stakes, always in demand.
Histology and cytology
Preparing and screening tissue for cancer diagnosis. Cytology has its own certification.
Molecular diagnostics
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic code) and genetic testing. The fastest-growing area of the lab.
Charge technologist or lab manager
Running a department and its schedule.
Public health and research labs
Outbreak testing, government pay and pension.
Attention to detail
A mislabelled tube can hurt someone.
Comfort with blood and body fluids
A summer job in any lab
Even a university research lab.
Comfort working alone
Night shifts can be one person in the whole lab.
An MLA (medical laboratory assistant) finishes a 1-year college certificate and collects blood, processes specimens and runs basic tests. Some colleges give assistants credit toward the full technologist program, so it can be a stepping stone.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Eight or 12 hours in a lab most patients never see. Blood samples arrive by tube system. You load analyzers, check quality control, review every result the machine flags, and phone a nurse when a potassium level is dangerous. At 3 a.m. you might crossmatch six units of blood for a trauma in the emergency department, then go back to reading bacteria plates. It is quiet, focused work with sudden bursts of urgency.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank rates the outlook good or very good in every province where it gives a rating. It counted about 24,300 medical laboratory technologists in Canada in 2023, and 30% were 50 or older.
Ontario's regulator now uses the certification exam run by CAMLPR (Canadian Alliance of Medical Laboratory Professionals Regulators). The older CSMLS (Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science) general exam is now for Alberta.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Diagnostics and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.