Phlebotomist

51.10 Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions · SOC 31-9097

The shortest formal route into health care Florida operates. ⚠⚠⚠ Of 772 phlebotomy credentials awarded by 29 Florida public institutions in 2023, EVERY ONE was a certificate of under twelve weeks — about 165 clock hours, most of it at a district technical college. It pays $45,230, essentially the same as a medical assistant or a pharmacy technician on ten times the training. ⚠⚠ And Florida's clinical laboratory licensing statute names phlebotomists in its EXCLUSION, one rung below two occupations the same statute licenses.

Licensure and accreditation

⚠⚠⚠ FLORIDA WROTE PHLEBOTOMISTS OUT OF ITS LABORATORY LICENSING STATUTE BY NAME. Section 483.803, F.S. defines clinical laboratory personnel as a director, supervisor, technologist, blood gas analyst or technician who performs or is responsible for laboratory test procedures — and then excludes, in its own words, trainees, persons who perform screening for blood banks or plasmapheresis centres, PHLEBOTOMISTS, or persons employed by a clinical laboratory to perform manual pretesting duties. ⚠⚠ So the Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel licenses the technician above you and the technologist above that, and explicitly does not reach you. The reasoning is defensible — drawing a specimen is not performing a test — but the consequence is that nothing the state does stands between a bad programme and an employer. ⚠⚠⚠ WHAT ACTUALLY GATES THE JOB IS A NATIONAL CERTIFICATION. Hospitals and reference laboratories screen on ASCP PBT, NHA CPT or AMT RPT, and an application without one frequently does not get past the first filter. ⚠ So ask a programme, before paying, which exam it prepares you for and what its pass rate is — because that certification, not the state, is the credential. ⚠ Note also that a handful of states DO license phlebotomists — California, Washington, Nevada and Louisiana among them — so a Florida certificate is not automatically portable. Check the destination state before you move.

⚠⚠⚠ Under twelve weeks, without a single exception

IPEDS records 772 phlebotomy credentials awarded by 29 Florida public institutions in the 2023 award year. The award level on all 772 is Certificate (less than 12 weeks). No associate degree, no longer certificate, nothing else.

⚠ 24 of the 29 carriers are district technical colleges — Osceola 82, Traviss 72, Miami Dade 68, Lake Tech 54, Orange Tech 41, Sheridan 39.

In the state course file the training is two blocks:

Block	Hours	FL institutions
`HSC0003` Basic Healthcare Worker (OCP A)	90	⚠⚠ 55 — the most widely carried course in the state
`MEA0520` Phlebotomist (OCP B)	75	20
`MEA0521` Phlebotomist, MA (OCP C)	75	22

About 165 clock hours end to end.

⚠⚠⚠ The ladder, and it runs the wrong way round

Rung	SOC	2025 median	FL institutions	FL credentials (2023)	Florida licence?
Phlebotomist	31-9097	$45,230	✅ 29	✅ 772	⚠ no — excluded by name
Medical laboratory technician	29-2012	$62,930	⚠ 9	⚠ 126	✅ yes
Medical laboratory scientist	29-2011	⚠⚠ $82,280	⚠⚠ 5	⚠⚠ 107	✅ yes

⚠⚠⚠ Florida produces six phlebotomists for every laboratory technician and seven for every laboratory scientist — and the scientist earns nearly twice as much. The rung that pays least is the one the state teaches everywhere and regulates not at all; the rungs that pay well are taught at five and nine institutions and are licensed.

⚠⚠ Read that as an opportunity rather than a complaint. Most of the 772 will not move up, so the competition for the higher rungs is far thinner than the competition for the entry one. If you can get into an MLT programme, the arithmetic is strongly in your favour.

⚠⚠ The same $45,000 for a twentieth of the training

Certificate route	2025 median	Clock hours
Phlebotomist	$45,230	✅ ~165
Medical assistant	$45,690	~1,300
Pharmacy technician	$45,750	960

⚠⚠⚠ Three of Florida's largest certificate-level health occupations pay within $520 a year of each other, and their training differs by a factor of eight. By wage per hour of training, phlebotomy is far and away the best of the three.

⚠ But read the second column of the ladder table before concluding anything. Medical assisting and pharmacy technology lead somewhere by themselves; phlebotomy's value is that it gets you inside a hospital, earning, in under three months. Treat it as a first move, not a career plan — and it is an unusually good first move.

⚠⚠ It is the same programme as medical assisting

MEA0520 and MEA0521 are occupational completion points B and C of Florida's Medical Assisting framework. A phlebotomy certificate is, structurally, a partial medical assisting credential.

⚠ So continuing is cheaper than starting over: OCP D (EKG aide, 75 hours) and then OCP E (medical assistant, 960 hours) build on what you already hold. Ask your institution whether it will count the hours — if you might continue, enrolling inside the medical assisting programme rather than as a standalone certificate makes that much easier.

⚠ One subject, twenty-four course numbers

Florida's course file carries 24 distinct active identifiers with “phlebotomy” in the title, across three prefixes — MEA, MLT and HCP. Only two of them (MEA0520, MEA0521) are carried by more than four institutions; the rest are one- and two-carrier numbers running from 15 to 82 hours.

⚠⚠ The practical consequence: do not try to match your training to another institution's by course number. Nothing lines up. What travels is the national certification, which is the same document everywhere — another reason to insist a programme prepares you for one.

What the work is

O*NET: draw blood from veins by vacuum tube, syringe, or butterfly venipuncture methods; collect fluid or tissue samples, using appropriate collection procedures; confirm the identities of patients by verifying their personal information; dispose of contaminated sharps, in accordance with applicable laws, standards, and policies; enter patient, specimen, insurance, or billing information into computer.

⚠ Notice the third task. Patient identification is the single highest-consequence thing a phlebotomist does — a mislabelled tube produces a correct result attached to the wrong person, and that is how transfusion errors and wrong treatments begin. The technical skill is the needle; the professional discipline is the two identifiers.

Necessary skills

Venipuncture on difficult veins — the elderly, the dehydrated, the frightened, children, oncology patients whose veins have been used for years.
Absolute discipline about identity and labelling. Two identifiers, at the bedside, every time.
Calming people in about twenty seconds. A large share of patients are frightened, and you have no time to build rapport.
Order of draw and specimen handling — the wrong tube sequence contaminates the result and nobody downstream can tell.
Bloodborne pathogen procedure, held to without exception on a bad shift.
Speed under a queue, in an outpatient draw station with thirty people waiting.

Advice

⚠⚠⚠ Ask which national certification exam the programme prepares you for, and its pass rate. Florida requires nothing, so the certification is the whole credential. ASCP PBT, NHA CPT and AMT RPT are the ones employers name.

⚠⚠ Ask how many supervised sticks you will do on real patients. Certification bodies set minimums, and this is the one thing a short programme can skimp on. Manikin arms do not prepare you for a dehydrated eighty-year-old.

⚠ Decide up front whether you are stopping here. If not, enrol through the medical assisting programme so the OCPs count, or plan directly for an MLT associate degree — nine Florida institutions, $62,930, and a state licence.

Use it as a paid look inside the building. Under three months tells you whether hospital work suits you, and you find out while being paid rather than two years into a degree.

⚠ And check the destination state if you might move. California, Washington, Nevada and Louisiana license phlebotomists; Florida does not, and a Florida certificate does not automatically satisfy them.

Programs that lead here

A program is a field of study, one level above a degree — each page says which degrees it covers and which Florida institutions award them. ⚠ The count is institutions that awarded a credential in the field in 2023; it is not a promise that a school runs this exact degree, and it counts something different from the course-based list further down.

Phlebotomy 29 Florida schools

The programme itself — 29 Florida public institutions, 772 credentials, all of them certificates of under twelve weeks, and 24 of the 29 carriers district technical colleges. ⚠ Read its degrees note for the two-block structure and why it matters which programme you enrol through.

Medical Assisting 38 Florida schools

⚠⚠ Not a neighbouring programme — the SAME framework. Phlebotomy is occupational completion points B and C of Florida's Medical Assisting programme, so the certificate is structurally a partial medical assisting credential and continuing costs only the remaining points. ⚠ 38 institutions, and the same technical colleges.

Medical Laboratory Science 14 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The rung above, and where the money is: technician $62,930 at 9 Florida institutions, scientist $82,280 at 5, both STATE LICENSED. ⚠ Far harder to get into and far better paid — and because most phlebotomists never move up, the competition there is thinner than the numbers suggest.

Related, but not a route in

Programs worth knowing about if you are considering this career — ⚠ they do not lead to it. Each row says what it is and is not.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠ Not a route — clock hours do not transfer into a credit degree. Named because phlebotomy is the cheapest and fastest way to find out whether patients, needles and blood suit you, and you find out while earning. Under three months against two years is a genuine reason to do it first.

Careers similar to this one

Careers filed under the same broad field in the federal classification (HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS) — often they share early coursework, and each row says which group it is filed in. ⚠ Worth reading BEFORE you commit: switching between neighbours is cheap early and expensive late.

Athletic Trainer Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Dental Hygienist Dental Support Services and Allied Professions

Dental hygienists are licensed clinicians who assess and treat the gums, remove calculus and stains, take and read radiographs, apply preventive agents, and teach patients to look after their own teeth. ⚠ A median of $98,100 on a two-year associate degree — the highest of any two-year route on this site. ⚠⚠ Florida licenses the work under Chapter 466 and requires THREE separate examinations on top of the degree. ⚠⚠⚠ Admission is the hard part, not the coursework: 18 public programmes in the whole state, all limited-access.

Diagnostic Medical Sonographer Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

Sonographers produce and interpret the ultrasound images physicians diagnose from — deciding in real time which views answer the clinical question, and recognising the difference between healthy and pathological tissue on a screen nobody else is watching. ⚠ A median of $96,590 on a two-year degree, second only to dental hygiene among the two-year routes on this site. ⚠⚠⚠ And a regulatory fact worth knowing before you enrol: Florida does NOT license sonographers, because the statute is written about radiation rather than about imaging.

Health Care Administrator Health and Medical Administrative Services

Running the non-clinical half of health care — budgets, staffing, quality, compliance, revenue, regulators. $123,860 median, 616,200 employed, 62,100 openings a year, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠ There is no required major: Census microdata puts HEALTH first at 169,319 people, BUSINESS second at 75,396 and PSYCHOLOGY third at 47,154. ⚠⚠⚠ But Florida statute puts a price on the choice — on the nursing home side, a health administration major halves the required training programme from 2,000 hours to 1,000.

Health Information Technician, Coder and Medical Office Administrator Health and Medical Administrative Services

⚠⚠⚠ Three different routes wear this name in Florida, they are taught at roughly the same number of institutions, and only ONE of them leads to the field's professional credential. Health information management — 31 institutions, and the associate degree is what makes you RHIT-eligible. Billing and coding — 37 institutions and the largest output, all clock-hour certificates, none of which does. Medical office administration — 36 institutions into an occupation of 850,000 people with no credential ladder at all. ⚠⚠ Choosing wrongly does not waste a term; it forecloses the credential.

Licensed Practical Nurse Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants

LPNs give direct nursing care under an RN or physician — medications, wounds, vital signs, assessment — and supervise aides. ⚠ It is the widest-taught credential on this site (48 Florida institutions, 1,322 completions a year), a median of $64,400, and the one field where Florida law publishes each programme's licence-examination pass rate before you enrol. Look it up.

Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services

Two of the largest short-certificate routes into health care in Florida, paying within $60 a year of each other and taught at the same technical colleges — and the state treats them completely differently. ⚠⚠⚠ Florida writes down in statute exactly what a medical assistant may do, including venipuncture and administering medication, and requires NO licence, certificate or training to do it. It requires a pharmacy technician, working behind a counter, to register with the Board of Pharmacy and complete a board-approved programme. ⚠⚠ And the medical assisting programme has FOUR labelled exit points you can leave on and be hired at — the pharmacy technician programme has none.

Medical Laboratory Scientist Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions

Medical laboratory scientists produce the results a diagnosis is made from — haematology, clinical chemistry, microbiology, immunology and the blood bank — and catch the result that is wrong before a physician acts on it. ⚠⚠ Florida is one of the few states that LICENSES this work: you may not report a clinical laboratory result here without a licence. ⚠⚠⚠ Read the wage section before you commit: this is a four-year degree paying less than three of the two-year health paths on this site, and that trade-off is the honest centre of this page.

Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Practice Nurse Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing

⚠⚠⚠ Florida grants nurse practitioners autonomous practice — and almost every account of it omits the limit that matters. Autonomous registration covers PRIMARY CARE ONLY. It does not let you practise your specialty without a physician protocol, and only certified midwives are excepted. 11,201 APRNs were registered for autonomous practice as of the 2024 legislative analysis. ⚠⚠ The occupation itself is nearly twice the size of the physician assistant profession — 320,400 employed, 29,500 openings a year, $132,300 median.

Occupational Therapy Assistant Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services

Occupational therapy assistants deliver the treatment that gets people back to doing ordinary things — dressing, cooking, writing, working, playing — after injury, stroke, developmental delay or mental illness. ⚠ A median of $72,300 on a two-year degree, growing 21%. ⚠⚠⚠ And the finding worth acting on: it pays MORE and grows FASTER than the physical therapist assistant, and Florida trains a QUARTER as many. Four institutions, 57 graduates a year. This page covers the assistant, the aide and the therapist.

Paramedic Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

Paramedics are the highest level of prehospital care — assessing and stabilising at the scene, administering drugs, managing advanced airways, reading ECGs and running a cardiac arrest before the patient reaches a hospital. ⚠ Median $60,600, reached through a certificate rather than a degree, and stacked on top of a short EMT course most people complete first. ⚠⚠ In Florida this is substantially a FIRE SERVICE credential: departments pay for it and pay extra for holding it. ⚠⚠⚠ And the accreditation rule here is the strictest on this site — the wrong programme leaves you unable to certify at all.

Pharmacist Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration

⚠⚠ One route: the Doctor of Pharmacy, awarded in Florida's public system by UF, FAMU and USF (about 412 a year). ⚠⚠ Admission turns on two or more years of prerequisite science, not a bachelor's degree: UF's minimum is an associate degree, and more than half of Pharm.D. applications nationally come from people without a bachelor's. Median pay is $140,910 nationally and $135,970 in Florida. BLS expects retail demand to be limited as prescriptions move online and by mail.

See every career in HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS →

Courses along this path

Selected, not exhaustive — the courses specific to this path plus the foundations it is built on. A course number does not identify a course in Florida: always check your own institution's catalog and take a syllabus to an adviser.

HSC0003 —Basic Healthcare Worker Request a guide

⚠⚠ Basic Healthcare Worker, 90 clock hours — occupational completion point A, and at 55 Florida public institutions the most widely carried course in the entire state catalogue. Infection control, vital signs, patient rights, CPR and the law of working under supervision.

⚠ ⚠ Shared across nearly every Florida health-science certificate, so completing it commits you to nothing — it also opens nurse aide, medical assisting and patient care.

MEA0520 —Phlebotomist Request a guide

⚠ Phlebotomist — OCP B, 75 clock hours, 20 institutions. Venipuncture technique, order of draw, specimen handling and patient identification. This plus HSC0003 is the whole certificate.

⚠ ⚠⚠ Florida runs TWO phlebotomy completion points: MEA0520 (OCP B, 20 carriers) and MEA0521 (OCP C, 22 carriers). They are the same 75 hours in different positions of the medical assisting sequence — ask which one your programme awards.

MEA0521 —Phlebotomist, Ma Request a guide

⚠ Phlebotomist, MA — OCP C, 75 clock hours, 22 institutions. The medical-assisting-track phlebotomy point, and the more widely carried of the two.

⚠ ⚠ Four institutions carry it as the integrated MEA0521C instead. Register by number, not title.

MEA0543 —Ekg Aide, Ma Request a guide

EKG Aide, MA — OCP D, 75 hours, 22 institutions. ⚠ The next exit point after phlebotomy, and another 75 hours for a second job title. Worth knowing about before you decide you are finished.

MLT1040C —Phlebotomy Request a guide

Phlebotomy Techniques — the college-credit version, carried by 3 institutions. ⚠ Named because it is the one route into this subject that produces CREDIT rather than clock hours, which matters if a laboratory degree may follow.

⚠ ⚠⚠ Florida carries 24 distinct active phlebotomy course numbers across MEA, MLT and HCP, running from 15 to 82 hours. Only MEA0520 and MEA0521 have more than four carriers. Do not try to match your training to another school's by number.

MLT1022C —Introduction to Medical Laboratory Technology Request a guide

Introduction to Medical Laboratory Technology, 6 institutions. ⚠ The first course of the rung above — worth looking at early if the laboratory interests you more than the draw.

BSC2085 —Anatomy and Physiology I Guide

Anatomy and Physiology I — 20 institutions. Not required for the phlebotomy certificate; required for every laboratory programme above it. ⚠ Taking it while you work is the cheapest way to keep the MLT door open.

⚠ ⚠ Two equivalent packagings: BSC2085 plus BSC2085L at 20 institutions, combined BSC2085C at 7.

MCB2010 —Microbiology Guide

Microbiology — 16 institutions. The other standard laboratory-programme prerequisite, and the subject that explains why the order of draw and specimen handling matter.

HSC1531 —Medical Terminology Request a guide

Medical Terminology — 16 institutions. The college-credit version. Requisitions, tube types and laboratory orders are written in it.

⚠ ⚠ Florida numbers this twice: HSC1531 at 16 institutions and HSC2531 at 8.

ENC1101 —English Composition I Guide

English Composition I — 39 institutions. Not needed for the certificate; needed for any degree above it, and the single most transferable course in the state.

MAT1033 —Intermediate Algebra Request a guide

Intermediate Algebra — the mathematics gate most laboratory associate degrees sit behind. ⚠ Clearing it while you are working as a phlebotomist removes the commonest obstacle to applying for MLT.

⚠ ⚠ Placement varies; some institutions gate the laboratory degree on MAC1105 College Algebra instead. Ask the MLT programme which it wants.

Where you can take these courses in Florida

84 Florida public institutions teach courses on this path. The count is how many of the 11 listed courses each one carries — it shows where the path is best covered. It is not a statement that a school offers this as a degree; for that, check the institution’s own programme list.

Broward College

7 of 11

NWFSC

Northwest Florida State College

7 of 11

TSC

Tallahassee State College

7 of 11

FGC

Florida Gateway College

6 of 11

IRSC

Indian River State College

6 of 11

NFC

North Florida College

6 of 11

SJRSC

St. Johns River State College

6 of 11

SPC

St. Petersburg College

6 of 11

FSCJ

Florida State College at Jacksonville

5 of 11

Hillsborough College

5 of 11

LSSC

Lake-Sumter State College

5 of 11

MDC

Miami Dade College

5 of 11

PESC

Pensacola State College

5 of 11

College of Central Florida

4 of 11

EFSC

Eastern Florida State College

4 of 11

ETC

Erwin Technical College

4 of 11

GCSC

Gulf Coast State College

4 of 11

LTC

Lake Technical College

4 of 11

LWTC

Lorenzo Walker Technical College

4 of 11

MTI

Manatee Technical College

4 of 11

MTC

Marion Technical College

4 of 11

WMTC

Mcfatter Technical College

4 of 11

MLEC

Miami Lakes Educational Center & Technical College

4 of 11

TECO

Osceola Technical College

4 of 11

PHSC

Pasco-Hernando State College

4 of 11

SFC

Santa FE College

4 of 11

SSCF

Seminole State College of Florida

4 of 11

STC

Sheridan Technical College

4 of 11

SDTC

South Dade Technical College

4 of 11

SCFMS

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota

4 of 11

MTCC

Traviss Technical College

4 of 11

ATC

Atlantic Technical College

3 of 11

CCTC

Cape Coral Technical College

3 of 11

DADEC

D.a. Dorsey Technical College

3 of 11

DSC

Daytona State College

3 of 11

FCTC

First Coast Technical College

3 of 11

FLAGTC

Flagler Technical College

3 of 11

FAMU

Florida A & M University

3 of 11

FAU

Florida Atlantic University

3 of 11

FIU

Florida International University

3 of 11

FSWSC

Florida Southwestern State College

3 of 11

LMLTC

Lively Technical College

3 of 11

OTCWC

Orange Technical College-West Campus

3 of 11

OTCWP

Orange Technical College-Winter Park

3 of 11

PBSC

Palm Beach State College

3 of 11

PSC

Polk State College

3 of 11

RME

Robert Morgan Educational

3 of 11

SFSC

South Florida State College

3 of 11

CFK

The College of the Florida Keys

3 of 11

UNF

University of North Florida

3 of 11

USF

University of South Florida

3 of 11

CTC

Charlotte Technical College

2 of 11

FGCU

Florida Gulf Coast University

2 of 11

WHTC

Florida Panhandle Technical College

2 of 11

FLPOLY

Florida Polytechnic University

2 of 11

FSU

Florida State University

2 of 11

LHTEC

Lindsey Hopkins Technical College

2 of 11

NCF

New College of Florida

2 of 11

OTCMC

Orange Technical College-Main Campus

2 of 11

PTCSP

Pinellas Technical College-St Petersburg

2 of 11

SHTC

Riveroak Technical College

2 of 11

UWF

University of West Florida

2 of 11

Valencia College

2 of 11

ALTC

Aparicio-Levy Technical College

1 of 11

BBTC

Big Bend Technical College

1 of 11

HBTC

Brewster Technical College

1 of 11

ECTC

Emerald Coast Technical College

1 of 11

FMTC

Fort Myers Technical College

1 of 11

MTEC

Fred K. Marchman Technical College

1 of 11

GTC

Gadsden Technical College

1 of 11

GSTC

George Stone Technical College

1 of 11

ITECH

Immokalee Technical College

1 of 11

FLTC

Learey Technical College

1 of 11

RLTC

Locklin Technical College

1 of 11

NFTC

North Florida Technical College

1 of 11

OTC

Okaloosa Techincal College

1 of 11

OTCSC

Orange Technical College-South Campus

1 of 11

PTCC

Pinellas Technical College-Clearwater

1 of 11

RTC

Ridge Technical College

1 of 11

SCTI

Suncoast Technical College

1 of 11

THTC

Thomas P. Haney Technical College

1 of 11

UCF

University of Central Florida

1 of 11

University of Florida

1 of 11

WTI

Withlacoochee Technical College

1 of 11

Sources

Requirements change. These are the authorities that decide them — check them directly before committing to a route.

O*NET — Phlebotomists (31-9097.00) — 139,700 employed (2024), growth faster than average (5% to 6%) on the 2024–34 projections, 18,400 annual openings, median wage $45,230 (2025). ⚠ Education is split 40% high school diploma, 40% postsecondary certificate, 16% some college — no dominant route. Tasks include drawing blood by vacuum tube, syringe or butterfly, confirming patient identity, disposing of contaminated sharps, and entering specimen and billing information.
Section 483.803, Florida Statutes — clinical laboratory personnel, definition — ⚠⚠⚠ The statute this page turns on. Clinical laboratory personnel means a director, supervisor, technologist, blood gas analyst or technician who performs or is responsible for laboratory test procedures — and the definition expressly excludes trainees, blood bank and plasmapheresis screeners, PHLEBOTOMISTS, and persons employed to perform manual pretesting duties. ⚠ So the Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel licenses the two rungs above and names this one out.
IPEDS Completions 2023 (C2023_A) — CIP 51.1009, 51.1004 and 51.1005 — ⚠⚠ Phlebotomy: 29 Florida public institutions, 772 credentials, and the award level on ALL 772 is Certificate (less than 12 weeks). Largest carriers Osceola Tech 82, Traviss Tech 72, Miami Dade 68, Lake Tech 54; 24 of the 29 are district technical colleges. Medical laboratory technician: 9 institutions, 126 credentials. Medical laboratory science: 5 institutions, 107, all bachelor's.
O*NET — Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians (29-2012.00) — The rung above: 351,200 employed, median $62,930 (2025), 22,600 annual openings — but growth SLOWER than average (1% to 2%). ⚠ Worth knowing before treating MLT as the automatic next move: the pay step is large, the field is not expanding fast, and Florida teaches it at nine institutions.
SCNS statewide course file — phlebotomy course inventory and OCP structure — ⚠⚠ The occupational completion points are printed in the statewide titles: PHLEBOTOMIST OCP B (75 HOURS) on MEA0520, PHLEBOTOMIST, MA OCP C (75 HOURS) on MEA0521 — so phlebotomy is formally part of Florida's Medical Assisting programme. ⚠ Measured over the whole file: 24 distinct active identifiers carry PHLEBOTOMY in the statewide title, across MEA, MLT and HCP, from 15 to 82 hours; only MEA0520 (20 carriers) and MEA0521 (22) exceed four. HSC0003 reaches 55, the most of any course in the state.
Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel — The board that licenses laboratory technologists, technicians, supervisors and directors under chapter 483, part III — and, per s. 483.803, not phlebotomists. ⚠ Go here when planning the move to MLT or MLS; the licence, not the degree, is what lets you work at those levels. ⚠ A handful of other states (California, Washington, Nevada, Louisiana) do license phlebotomists, so check before relocating.

Last updated 23 September 2026.