Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT)
Cascade JH 208 | 503-978-5661 | Contact: Candia Elliott
Are you fascinated by medicine? Do you like working with computers? Is detail work easy for you? Do you enjoy helping others? Are you a team player? Do you enjoy problem-solving challenges? Then MLT is for you!
Read more about who MLT's are.
Your Path to a Health Care Career
According to the current edition of the Jobs Rated Almanac, medical laboratory technicians are very high on the list of best jobs, ranking 18 in a list of 250 jobs. The mean starting salary for a Medical Laboratory Technician nationwide is $26,000 to $30,000 (according to ASCLS). In Oregon, the annual mean salary is almost $37,000 (according to US Bureau of Labor statistics). With the current shortage of laboratory practitioners, wages are expected to rise higher than average.
Medical laboratory technology is one of the most rapidly expanding health care fields. As a medical laboratory technician, you will play an increasingly important role in health care delivery. The MLT Program provides extensive training, including a clinical internship with supervised work experience. This qualifies graduates to run clinical tests required by physicians to make life-affecting decisions in patient care. Make a decision for your life today!
Associate of Applied Science Degree
105 credit hours; includes 93 credit hours of required MLT courses and 16 credit hours of general education, eight of which may be taken from MLT required courses. Consult a program advisor for help in planning General Education courses. Students must meet college graduation requirements including General Education, math and English competencies.
Extension Program
Do you live outside the Portland area? PCC's MLT program has partnered with many Oregon community colleges and laboratories to create an innovative extension program option.
Why MLT? Why PCC?
MLT is in High Demand
The health care industry is in the midst of one of the most significant shortages of trained personnel in its history, and leaders predict it is a trend that will continue. The shortage of laboratory personnel is greater than that of nurses and physicians because large numbers of programs have been cut or eliminated. In just the last 4 years over 60 BS and AAS programs have closed. In the Journal for Clinical Laboratory Science a survey indicated that within the next seven years 50% of the current practitioners will retire, and that not enough programs exist to meet the needs of the industry. In a recent report the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates a 17 percent growth rate in the field of clinical laboratory science. For the period 1998 to 2008 the BLS projects 53,000 new jobs in the field, 40,000 vacancies (created by retirements, people leaving the field, etc.), and 93,000 incremental positions to be filled at 9,000 per year. In the "Outlook" section of Jobs Rated Almanac by Les Krantz, the author predicts,
The volume of laboratory testing will increase sharply in the coming years and advances in medical technology will serve to create new tests and laboratory procedures perhaps even overloading the present capacity of the system. Workers and new laboratories are always in high demand.
PCC's MLT Program has an exceptional job placement rate within the professional community because of this demand and the high quality of our graduates.
High Quality Education
When choosing an MLT program, it is critical that the program be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency. The PCC MLT Program maintains accreditation by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS). Only MLT programs accredited by NAACLS can qualify their graduates to sit for the NCA or ASCP certifying examinations.
The PCC MLT Program is known for graduating highly competent laboratory professionals who also have an extraordinary success rate on national board examinations. The national pass rates on the examinations averages 68%; the PCC success rate is greater than 90%. Students graduating from PCC's MLT Program frequently place in the top ten percent of the country. Seven times in the last ten years, a student from the PCC program has achieved the highest score in the country on the national certification exam.