NOC 33101: Medical laboratory assistants and related technical occupations

Medical laboratory assistants and workers in related technical occupations perform pre-analysis and pre-testing tasks such as collecting blood and other samples, processing specimens, and preparing special chemicals called reagents for use in testing. They conduct routine medical laboratory tests and set up, clean and maintain medical laboratory equipment. They are employed in medical laboratories in hospitals, clinics, research facilities, post-secondary educational institutions and government research laboratories.

Express Entry eligibility

• Skilled work (TEER 0 to 3): yes, TEER 3.
• Canadian Experience Class: counts as skilled Canadian work (1 year in the last 3 years).
• Federal Skilled Worker Program: counts as skilled work (1 year of continuous work in the last 10 years).
• Federal Skilled Trades Program: not one of the eligible trades.
• High-wage occupation (from November 3, 2026): no. No high-wage add-on, and a job offer in it earns no CRS points.

TEER 3: Occupations that usually need a college diploma, an apprenticeship of less than 2 years, or more than 6 months of on-the-job training. Every program has other requirements too, such as language test results and, for FSW, a points test.

Category-based draws

• Healthcare and social services

  At least 12 months of full-time work (or the same amount part-time) in this occupation within the last 3 years, in Canada or abroad.

Category lists checked on canada.ca on 2026-10-17. IRCC category-based selection

CRS points for work in NOC 33101

Skilled Canadian work in this occupation earns the standard points, the same before and after November 3, 2026, with no high-wage add-on:

See Canadian work points and the median-wage rule.

Main duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

• Collect, label, sort and prepare blood, tissue and other samples from patients
• Log and validate patient samples and prepare them for testing
• Set up medical laboratory equipment
• Prepare chemical reagents to be combined with biological samples for testing
• Conduct routine laboratory tests and sample analyses
• Perform quality assurance of testing techniques and record results
• Clean and maintain medical laboratory and medical laboratory equipment.

For Express Entry your duties must match the lead statement and most of the main duties above.

Example job titles

• medical laboratory aide
• medical laboratory assistant
• medical laboratory technician
• phlebotomist
• phlebotomy aide

Employment requirements

• Medical laboratory assistants and related technical workers require completion of a college certificate program in medical laboratory science.
• Certification by the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science is usually required by employers.

Similar jobs with a different code

• 22110Biological technologists and technicians
• 22100Chemical technologists and technicians
• 32120Medical laboratory technologists