ETC Awards Limited · RQF Level 2
ETCAL 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 learning15 hours
- Units in this qualification7
Awarded by ETC Awards Limited · on the Ofqual register
Start here
See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
2023 proved to be a hugely successful year, where ETA was honoured as the FAB EPAO of the year, alongside securing Investors in People Gold (Top 10 UK employer)
These are the units ETC Awards 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 · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand personal safety and hygiene practices as they relate to the organisation and the specific working environment within the laboratory.
- Understand the correct procedure to be followed in the event of an accident or incident within the laboratory environment.
- Understand the approved method for obtaining safety reference data, including safety data sheets (SDS) and other relevant documentation.
- Understand the principles of risk assessment and how it applies to the individual's role and the overall working environment in the laboratory.
- Understand the correct procedures for the segregation and safe disposal of different types of laboratory waste, including hazardous materials.
- Understand the relevant health, safety and environmental legislation that applies to laboratory work.
- Know the local health and safety instructions and emergency procedures specific to the laboratory.
Laboratory Measurement TechniquesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to measure mass correctly using appropriate weighing equipment and techniques.
- Understand how to calibrate and maintain laboratory equipment to ensure accurate measurements.
- Understand how to measure volume correctly using appropriate volumetric glassware and techniques.
- Understand how to measure temperature correctly using appropriate thermometers and temperature sensors.
- Understand how to measure pH correctly using pH meters and indicators.
Routine Laboratory HousekeepingReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Create and maintain good housekeeping practices in a laboratory environment.
- Clean laboratory apparatus correctly and safely, using appropriate cleaning agents and techniques.
- Connect laboratory apparatus to other apparatus and to services correctly and safely, following established procedures.
- Understand how to store laboratory equipment, apparatus and materials correctly and safely, in accordance with relevant regulations.
- Understand how to transport laboratory equipment, apparatus and materials correctly and safely, minimising the risk of damage or spillage.
Routine Laboratory ProceduresReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare simple solutions correctly and safely, following established protocols and safety guidelines.
- Understand the importance and role of written documentation within the laboratory, including standard operating procedures (SOPs), experimental protocols, and record-keeping.
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory heating and cooling equipment, including hotplates, ovens, and refrigerators.
- Understand the safe use and day-to-day care of laboratory equipment used for mixing and separating substances, including centrifuges, stirrers, and filtration apparatus.
Support for Laboratory Techniques and PracticeReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to utilise all available means of communication effectively within the laboratory setting, including verbal, written, and electronic methods.
- Understand how to organise work activities efficiently to ensure tasks are completed in a timely and effective manner.
- Understand how to manage resources effectively, including equipment, materials, and time, to optimise laboratory operations.
- Understand how to keep and maintain accurate and up-to-date records of laboratory activities, experiments, and results.
- Understand how to collect and utilise information from various sources to support laboratory techniques and practice.
The Laboratory as a Working EnvironmentReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the formal and informal channels of communication within the organisation and how to use them effectively.
- Know the purpose and function of the equipment and apparatus commonly used in a laboratory setting.
- Understand how to use a stock control system to manage laboratory supplies and materials.
- Understand how to carry out general laboratory instructions and procedures accurately and safely.
- Understand the types of reports required in a laboratory and how to complete them accurately.
- Understand security and access requirements for the laboratory and the importance of adhering to them.
Use of Laboratory ServicesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to use the mains gas/ Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) services safely.
- Understand how to connect and disconnect gas cylinders safely.
- Understand how to use the water services correctly and safely.
- Understand how to operate vacuum systems correctly and safely.
- Understand how to use a fume cupboard effectively and safely.
- Understand how to control heating, lighting and ventilation services 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
- Assisting with the routine maintenance, cleaning, disinfecting and calibration of laboratory equipment
- Clean and tidy the workplace after scientific or technical learning activities
- Measure, weigh and prepare compounds and solutions for laboratory use
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 57 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
This unit covers health, safety, and environmental procedures within a labouratory setting. Learners will understand personal safety and hygiene, accident procedures, safety reference data, and risk assessment relevant to their role and working environment.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for ETCAL Level 2 Certificate In Laboratory Technical Skills
7 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by ETC Awards 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.