The instructors guide the first of three documents in this package is for a course to help students who are investigating the activities within a hospital clinic or physicians office the material is designed to relate training experience to information studied in the classroom the course is intended for individualized study and is competency based with educational outcomes stated for . Medical laboratory assistants who are currently working but have no formal training can also challenge the exam after being declared eligible through a prior learning assessment competency profile the examinations are competency based exams testing what an exam candidate can do or accomplish rather than simply knowledge acquired it focuses on the application of knowledge not simply . Career definition for a medical laboratory assistant medical laboratory assistants which are a specific subgroup of lab technologists and technicians work in clinics hospitals and private labs