How to become a medical or Pathology laboratory technician

Official title: Medical/Pathology laboratory technician

Also called: Blood bank technician, Blood bank technologist, Clinical microbiology technician, Cytopathology technician, Cytotechnician, Haematology technician, Haematology technologist, Histopathology technician, Medical laboratory technician, Medical laboratory technologist, Pathology laboratory technician, Pathology technician

Medical/Pathology laboratory technician performs clinical tests on specimens of bodily fluids and tissues in order to obtain information about the health of a patient or cause of death. He/she conducts analysis of human tissues and body fluids, including blood, bone marrow, urine, amniotic fluid, etc. He/she operates, calibrates and maintains simple instruments used in quantitative and qualitative analysis such as glucometer, Haemoglobin A1c (HBA1c) meter, bilirunometer, full blood count (FBC) analyser and light microscope.

Main tasks

• Conducting chemical analysis of body fluids, including blood, urine, and spinal fluid to determine presence of normal and abnormal components
• Operating, calibrating and maintaining equipment used in quantitative and qualitative analysis, such as spectrophotometers, calorimeters, flame photometers, and computer-controlled analysers
• Entering data from analysis of laboratory tests and clinical results into records-keeping systems and reporting results to medical practitioners and other health professionals
• Analysing samples of biological material for chemical content or reaction
• Setting up, cleaning, and maintaining laboratory equipment
• Analysing laboratory findings to check the accuracy of the results
• Establishing and monitoring programmes to ensure the accuracy of laboratory results and developing, standardising, evaluating, and modifying procedures, techniques and tests used in the analysis of specimens
• Obtaining specimens, cultivating, isolating and identifying micro-organisms for analysis

Ways in

• Polytechnic or ITE: Polytechnic diploma. Related diplomas: Diploma in Medical Biotechnology (Temasek Polytechnic). Peernovo matched these from course names; polytechnics do not publish which jobs each course leads to.

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Median pay: $51,360 a year. The middle half earn $46,236 to $58,560 a year.
• Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Sonographer
• Medical X-ray technician
• Pharmacy technician
• Prosthetist/Orthotist
• Prosthetic/Orthotic technician
• Dental technician

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Questions people ask

How do I become a medical or Pathology laboratory technician?

Ways in include: Polytechnic diploma.

How much does a medical or Pathology laboratory technician earn in Singapore?

Median full-time pay is $51,360 a year (Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg)). The middle half earn $46,236 to $58,560.

Will AI change the work of a medical or Pathology laboratory technician?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg): Resident Occupational Wages (Occupational Wage Survey) (June 2024 (data.gov.sg update 2026-04-01)), Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026