GQA Qualifications Limited · RQF Level 2
GQA PAA\VQ-SET Level 2 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 2
- Total credits17
- Guided learning115 hours
- Units in this qualification7
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
A vocationally-related qualification at Level 2, this certificate focuses on laboratory technical skills. It is intended for individuals working in a laboratory environment. The qualification includes the use of laboratory services, routine procedures, and health and safety.
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.
Health, Safety and Environmental Procedures in the LaboratoryReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand personal safety and hygiene practices as they relate to the organisation and the laboratory working environment
- Understand the procedure to be followed in the event of an accident or incident within the laboratory
- Understand the method for obtaining safety reference data, including safety data sheets (SDS) and other relevant documentation
- Understand risk assessment principles and how they relate to the role and working environment within the laboratory
- Understand the segregation and safe disposal of different types of laboratory waste, including hazardous and non-hazardous materials
- Understand relevant health, safety and environmental legislation applicable to laboratory work
- Know the local health and safety instructions and procedures specific to the laboratory environment
Laboratory Measurement TechniquesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to measure mass correctly using appropriate laboratory balances and weighing techniques
- Understand how to calibrate and maintain laboratory equipment to ensure accurate and reliable measurements
- Understand how to measure volume correctly using appropriate laboratory glassware and techniques
- Understand how to measure temperature correctly using appropriate laboratory thermometers and temperature sensors
- Understand how to measure pH correctly using appropriate pH meters and indicators
Routine Laboratory HousekeepingReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Create and maintain good housekeeping practices within the laboratory environment
- Clean laboratory apparatus correctly and safely, using appropriate cleaning agents and techniques
- Connect laboratory apparatus to other apparatus and to services (e.g. gas, water, electricity) correctly and safely
- Understand how to store and transport laboratory equipment, apparatus and materials correctly and safely, in accordance with relevant regulations and guidelines
Routine Laboratory ProceduresReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare simple solutions correctly and safely in a laboratory environment
- Understand the importance and role of written documentation within the laboratory, including record keeping and reporting
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory heating equipment, including ovens and hotplates
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory cooling equipment, including refrigerators and freezers
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory equipment used for mixing, such as stirrers and shakers
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory equipment used for separating, such as centrifuges and filtration apparatus
Support for Laboratory Techniques and PracticeReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to utilise all available means of communication within the laboratory, including verbal, written and electronic methods
- Understand how to organise work activities effectively within the laboratory, including prioritising tasks and managing time
- Understand how to manage resources effectively within the laboratory, including equipment, materials and consumables
- Understand how to keep and maintain records accurately and securely within the laboratory, including experimental data and equipment logs
- Understand how to collect and utilise information relevant to laboratory techniques and practice, including scientific literature and standard operating procedures
The Laboratory as a Working EnvironmentReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand channels of communication within the organisation, including formal and informal communication routes
- Know the equipment and apparatus commonly used in a laboratory, including their functions and maintenance requirements
- Understand how to use a stock control system effectively within the laboratory, including ordering, receiving and storing materials
- Understand how to carry out general laboratory instructions/procedures accurately and safely, following established protocols
- Understand the types of reports required within the laboratory, including experimental reports and incident reports
- Understand security and access requirements for the laboratory, including authorised personnel and restricted areas
Use of Laboratory ServicesReal unit · GQA Qualifications Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to use the mains gas/ Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) services safely and correctly
- Understand how to use gas cylinders safely and correctly, including connecting, disconnecting and storing them
- Understand how to use the water services safely and correctly, including taps, deionised water systems and drainage
- Understand how to use the vacuum systems correctly and safely, including pumps, lines and gauges
- Understand how to use a fume cupboard correctly and safely, including airflow monitoring and containment procedures
- Understand how to use heating, lighting and ventilation services effectively and safely within the laboratory
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 2 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
- 07_Designing and conducting toxicity studies, and evaluating results
- 12_Maintaining cell lines for laboratory activities using cryogenic storage
- 15_Assisting with the Preparation of Solutions for Laboratory Use
- Assess and communicate scientific or technical information to authorised personnel
- Assisting with the routine maintenance, cleaning, disinfecting and calibration of laboratory equipment
- Assuring Quality Methods and Procedures for Laboratories
Where this can lead
Associate Laboratory Safety Technician
Your journey starts here, building a crucial foundation. With dedication and a thirst for knowledge, this role can open doors to a rewarding and impactful career in health, safety, and environmental management within the dynamic world of Research & Development. We're excited to see where you take it.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 32 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 develop knowledge of health, safety, and environmental procedures within the labouratory. The unit covers personal safety and hygiene responsibilities, accident and incident procedures, safety reference data, risk assessment principles, and waste management practices relevant to labouratory work.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for GQA PAA\VQ-SET Level 2 Certificate in Laboratory Technical Skills
7 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by GQA Qualifications Limited.
- Health, Safety and Environmental Procedures in the Laboratory
- Laboratory Measurement Techniques
- Routine Laboratory Housekeeping
- Routine Laboratory Procedures
- Support for Laboratory Techniques and Practice
- The Laboratory as a Working Environment
and 1 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.