College Certificate - Medical Laboratory Assistant

The Medical Laboratory Assistant certificate is a one-year program with placement, training the specimen collection and processing workforce that clinical laboratories depend on.

Content covers phlebotomy and venipuncture technique, specimen collection including capillary and non-blood samples, specimen handling, processing and transport requirements, laboratory information systems and requisition management, basic laboratory instrumentation and testing procedures, infection control and biohazard handling, medical terminology, quality assurance and documentation, and patient interaction. Practice on phlebotomy technique is extensive before clinical placement.

Phlebotomy is the core employable skill and it is genuinely technical — drawing reliably from difficult veins takes practice, and laboratories value people who can do it well. Demand across Ontario hospital and community laboratory networks is consistent, and the one-year format makes this one of the faster health credentials to complete.

Clinical placement is a mandatory, graded component. Placements require immunisation records, a police vulnerable sector check, CPR certification and mask fit testing — students who cannot complete these cannot progress, so arrange them early.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The North campus in Etobicoke is its main site, running technology, engineering, health science, business and skilled trades programs in purpose-built labs and shops rather than lecture halls, with three intakes a year and the deepest employer network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Its field maps to CIP 51.1004 (Clinical/medical laboratory assistant). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Humber publishes a PGWP-eligible program list with CIP codes; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.