ETC Awards Limited · RQF Level 3
ETCAL 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 qualification10
Awarded by ETC Awards 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.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
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.
Advanced Laboratory ProceduresReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the techniques for separation
- Understand the techniques in microbiology
- Prepare and test solutions
- Locate and repair faults in equipment
Biological and Biochemical Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Support experimental work in biotechnology and genetics
- Support experimental work using enzymes and other biological molecules
- Classify, collect and preserve biological material
- Support and undertake techniques in microscopy
- Support and undertake further techniques in microbiology
- Support physiological experiments
Chemical Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Perform titrimetric and gravimetric analysis
- Perform spectroscopic techniques
- Perform electrochemical techniques
- Perform thermochemical techniques
- Perform analytical techniques
- Prepare and analyse inorganic and organic compounds
ChromatographyReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the different types of chromatography
- Understand the principles and equipment used for High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
- Understand the principles and equipment used for Gas Chromatography (GC)
- Understand the principles and equipment used for Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)
Good Manufacturing PracticeReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations and how they relate to a labouratory
- Know the purpose of documentation and its role in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations relate to labouratory staff
- Understand the purpose of quality systems and how they should comply with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to labouratory facilities and equipment
- Understand how Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Regulations relate to manufactured products and the
Laboratory Health, Safety and Environmental PracticesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand relevant legislation and codes of practice
- Understand how to assess and control risks within a labouratory
- Know Health, Safety and Environmental policies for the labouratory
- Know procedures for managing emergencies and incidents
- Manage materials
Laboratory Photography and Audio-Visual AidsReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Set up and use recording/playback equipment
- Recognise and use different types of camera and imaging systems
- Produce photographic and electronic images
- Create visual aids
- Set up and use sound systems
- Maintain imaging, recording and playback equipment and materials
Laboratory Workshop TechniquesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Cut and shape materials
- Fix materials using adhesives and engineered devices
- Draw/sketch work pieces and work from diagrams/drawings
- Maintain the workshop
- Implement and follow safe systems and procedures
Manage Operations within the LaboratoryReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand employment-related matters that may affect the labouratory environment
- Understand how to communicate effectively
- Understand how to manage labouratories and related areas on a day-to-day basis
- Understand how to manage human and physical resources on a day-to-day basis
Physic Laboratory TechniquesReal unit · ETC Awards Limited
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to support experimental work in regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
- Understand how to support experimental work using ionising radiation
- Understand how to support experimental work in mechanics
- Understand how to support experimental work in electronics
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.
- 07_Designing and conducting toxicity studies, and evaluating results
- 16_Separating Samples for Laboratory Activities Using Centrifugation
- 23_Analysing DNA using gel electrophoresis
- Accessing, registering and inputting patient data in a LIMS under supervision
- Amplifying DNA samples using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
- Amplifying and Analysing DNA or RNA Samples Using PCR or qPCR in Life Sciences and Related Industries
- Analysing laboratory samples using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
- Maintain License Requirements and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) to Ensure Compliance
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 70 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
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for ETCAL Level 3 Certificate In Laboratory Technical Skills
10 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by ETC Awards Limited.
- Advanced Laboratory Procedures
- Biological and Biochemical Laboratory Techniques
- Chemical Laboratory Techniques
- Chromatography
- Good Manufacturing Practice
- Laboratory Health, Safety and Environmental Practices
and 4 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.