GQA Qualifications Limited · RQF Level 3
GQA PAA\VQ-SET Level 3 Certificate in Laboratory Technical Skills
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Total credits25
- Guided learning180 hours
- Units in this qualification12
Awarded by GQA Qualifications Limited · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
This Level 3 certificate is a vocationally-related qualification in science. It develops the laboratory technical skills required for employment in the sector. Learners cover topics such as chromatography, laboratory photography, and biochemical techniques.
These are the units GQA Qualifications Limited registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Advanced Laboratory ProceduresReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the various techniques used for separation in a laboratory setting, such as chromatography, distillation and filtration.
- Understand the techniques used in microbiology, including culturing, staining and identification of microorganisms.
- Demonstrate how to prepare solutions of specified concentrations and test their properties using appropriate analytical techniques.
- Demonstrate how to locate and repair common faults in laboratory equipment, following established procedures and safety guidelines.
Biological and Biochemical Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Support experimental work in biotechnology
- Support experimental work in genetics
- Support experimental work using enzymes
- Support experimental work using other biological molecules
- Classify biological material
- Collect biological material
- Preserve biological material
- Support techniques in microscopy
- Undertake techniques in microscopy
- Support further techniques in microbiology
- Undertake further techniques in microbiology
- Support physiological experiments
Chemical Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Perform titrimetric analysis
- Perform gravimetric analysis
- Perform spectroscopic techniques
- Perform electrochemical techniques
- Perform thermochemical techniques
- Perform analytical techniques
- Prepare inorganic compounds
- Analyse inorganic compounds
- Prepare organic compounds
- Analyse organic compounds
ChromatographyReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the different types of chromatography and their applications
- Understand the principles of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the equipment used
- Understand the principles of Gas Chromatography (GC) and the equipment used
- Understand the principles of Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and the equipment used
Field and Construction Materials TestingReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Know the Health, Safety and training considerations when collecting Laboratory test samples from UK construction sites, including risk assessments and personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Know how the Specification for Highway Works Series 600 provides guidance for field and laboratory testing of construction materials and establishes a minimum standard of quality.
- Understand the purpose of in-situ testing techniques used on construction sites, their significance to the quality of construction work, and the acceptable test result or range for each technique.
- Understand the importance of Client specifications and relevant industry standards when testing construction materials in the field and in the laboratory.
- Understand how test results are applied by the customer (e.g. engineers, contractors) in making decisions about the suitability of construction materials and the quality of workmanship.
Good Manufacturing PracticeReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to a laboratory
- Know the purpose of documentation in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Know the role of documentation in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations relate to laboratory staff responsibilities
- Understand the purpose of quality systems in a laboratory environment
- Understand how quality systems should comply with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to laboratory facilities
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to laboratory equipment
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to manufactured products
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to the manufacturing process
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to samples
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to sampling
Laboratory Health, Safety and Environmental PracticesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand relevant legislation and codes of practice relating to health, safety and environmental practices in a laboratory
- Understand how to assess and control risks within a laboratory, including identifying hazards and implementing control measures
- Know Health, Safety and Environmental policies for the laboratory, including emergency procedures and waste disposal protocols
- Know procedures for managing emergencies and incidents within the laboratory, including first aid and reporting procedures
- Manage materials within the laboratory, including storage, handling and disposal of hazardous substances
Laboratory Photography and Audio-Visual AidsReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Set up recording equipment for laboratory use
- Use recording equipment for laboratory use
- Set up playback equipment for laboratory use
- Use playback equipment for laboratory use
- Recognise different types of camera and imaging systems
- Use different types of camera and imaging systems
- Produce photographic images
- Produce electronic images
- Create visual aids for laboratory presentations
- Set up sound systems for laboratory presentations
- Use sound systems for laboratory presentations
- Maintain imaging equipment and materials
- Maintain recording equipment and materials
- Maintain playback equipment and materials
Laboratory Workshop TechniquesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Demonstrate how to cut and shape materials using appropriate workshop tools and techniques.
- Demonstrate how to fix materials securely using adhesives and engineered devices, such as screws, bolts and rivets.
- Demonstrate how to draw or sketch work pieces accurately, using appropriate conventions and symbols.
- Interpret and work from diagrams and drawings to construct or assemble components.
- Demonstrate how to maintain the workshop environment in a clean, organised and safe condition.
- Implement and follow safe systems of work and procedures within the laboratory workshop environment, adhering to relevant health and safety regulations.
Manage Operations within the LaboratoryReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand employment-related matters that may affect the laboratory environment, including employment rights and responsibilities
- Understand how to communicate effectively with colleagues and other stakeholders within the laboratory environment
- Understand how to manage laboratories and related areas on a day-to-day basis, including maintaining a safe and efficient working environment
- Understand how to manage human and physical resources on a day-to-day basis, including staff allocation and equipment maintenance
Physic Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to support experimental work in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the safe handling and operation of relevant equipment.
- Understand how to support experimental work using ionising radiation, including the implementation of appropriate safety protocols and radiation monitoring procedures.
- Understand how to support experimental work in mechanics, including the setup and calibration of equipment for measuring force, motion and energy.
- Understand how to support experimental work in electronics, including the construction and testing of circuits and the use of electronic measuring instruments.
Testing for Concrete and Aggregates TechnologyReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the various methods of concrete production used within the construction industry.
- Understand the laboratory testing processes used for concrete and aggregates, and the quality systems in place to maintain the accuracy of results, including traceability and continuity.
- Understand the purpose of different concrete testing techniques and their significance to the overall quality of construction.
- Understand the acceptable test result or range for concrete testing, and how these relate to quality standards.
- Understand the importance of aggregate specification and relevant industry standards when testing materials used in concrete production.
- Understand how laboratory test results are applied in construction projects and how variability in results is dealt with, including the application of statistical analysis.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- 01_Maintaining health and safety in a laboratory environment
- 04_Communicating laboratory information to authorised personnel under supervision
- 04_Improving product and process quality in laboratories
- 07_Designing and conducting toxicity studies, and evaluating results
- 08_Analysing laboratory samples using Gas Chromatography
- 09_Analysing laboratory samples using Gas Chromatography
- 09_Planning and Scheduling Resources for Toxicity Studies
- 12_Maintaining cell lines for laboratory activities using cryogenic storage
Where this can lead
Laboratory Operations Assistant I
Your journey starts here, at the very foundation of scientific discovery. With dedication, a keen eye for detail, and a willingness to learn, the opportunities in lab operations are vast. We're excited to see where you'll go!
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 47 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
Learners will acquire skills in advanced labouratory procedures such as separation techniques, microbiological methods, solution preparation, and equipment fault diagnosis and repair. The unit covers chromatography, distillation, filtration, and microbiological testing within labouratory practice.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for GQA PAA\VQ-SET Level 3 Certificate in Laboratory Technical Skills
12 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by GQA Qualifications Limited.
- Advanced Laboratory Procedures
- Biological and Biochemical Laboratory Techniques
- Chemical Laboratory Techniques
- Chromatography
- Field and Construction Materials Testing
- Good Manufacturing Practice
and 6 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.