Requirements

Medical technician - requirements

Medical technicians, or clinical technologists, make sure equipment used to diagnose and treat patients works correctly. Find out what you’ll need to study to get your first job, and what you might be working on day-to-day.

Know what you'll need to land a job below.

What qualifications do you need to be a medical technician?

You’ll need an undergraduate degree in order to apply for a trainee medical technician job. Subjects to consider include:

Once you have your first role as a trainee, you’ll need to complete a training scheme while you work in order to fully qualify.

Please note this is a beta version. We'll continue to improve our suggestions here so that we show you the most relevant subjects.

Do you need a postgraduate qualification to be a medical technician?

You don’t need a postgraduate qualification to get your first job as a trainee. However, this is something to think about further along your career path, as it could help you specialise.

Subjects offered at master's level include:

Advanced medical engineering
Advanced healthcare technology
Chemical engineering
Diagnostic radiography
Medical devices engineering
Prosthetics and orthotics

What skills do you need to be a medical technician?

As a medical technician, you’ll need a good knowledge of physics or engineering, as well as high attention to detail and communication skills.

Hard skills usually include:

Analysis
Manufacturing
Medicine
Physics
IT

Soft skills include:

Attention to detail
Communication
Enthusiasm
Management
Self-motivation

Do you need work experience to be a medical technician?

Work experience isn’t necessary to land your first trainee role, but it could help strengthen your uni application or when applying for jobs. You could contact a local hospital and ask to shadow a medical technician, or apply for more structured work experience if they’re advertising one.

You might also be offered a work experience placement while studying, or a year in industry.