Apprenticeship as a medical-technical laboratory assistant
‘A very varied profession’ Manja & Simone, trainees MTA for laboratory at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Diagnostics at Jena University Hospital
What do you do and what do you like best about it?
Manja: It’s a very varied job. There are different tasks and workplaces every day. It’s also great that we have a really great team here, have a lot of fun at work and we can all rely on each other.
Simone: It never gets boring either, because technical development never stands still, there are often new generations of devices and new tests, so we learn something new every day.
Why did you decide to do this?
Simone: As a child, I had to go to the doctor every fortnight and always went to the lab beforehand. I found that very exciting, all the microscopes and pipettes and what the doctor could then diagnose from the blood and urine samples. My career aspirations were probably already laid out then.
Manja: Studying medicine seemed too long and unpredictable for me, so I decided in favour of this profession. My sister is a biology lab technician, which I also found quite interesting, but I preferred to work with people.
What is/was a personal challenge for you in your work and how do you deal with it?
Manja: The biggest challenge is probably that you have to stay focussed throughout your working hours and keep an overview and calm. You shouldn’t allow yourself to make any mistakes, as this can be fatal under certain circumstances, e.g. in molecular genetic or autoimmune disease analyses.
Simone: The highly sensitive technology is also sometimes vulnerable and if a device breaks down, you have to be able to react flexibly and quickly and do it yourself. At the same time, routine operations have to continue and the determined values have to be sent to the various wards.
What career prospects do you have?
Manja: You can become a senior MTA for a specific area or the entire laboratory. It is also possible to study medical technology in a postgraduate programme.
Facts and figures about the apprenticeship
- Duration: 3 years
- Start: 1 September each year
- Prerequisite: good secondary school leaving certificate, under certain conditions also secondary school leaving certificate
- Salary: approx. €1,200 to €1,300
Similar apprenticeships:
- Anaesthesia technical assistant | ATA
- Operating theatre assistant | OTA
- Medical assistant | MFA
- Orthoptist
- Dental assistant | ZMFA
- Medical technologist for functional diagnostics | MTF
- Medical technologist for laboratory analysis | MTL
- Medical technologist for radiology | MTR