£249

This is an introductory course for those without previous laboratory experience. During this one-day course, students will learn transferable skills suitable for any laboratory work. 

The programme provides students with an understanding of safe working practices and experience using essential equipment and protocols. Students may attend this as a ‘stand-alone’ course or as an introduction to the BioGrad facility before attending one of our more advanced courses.  

This is our most popular course and runs many times a year. The course is designed and delivered by research scientists working in both industry and academia, so we always teach the most up-to-date techniques. We alternate lecturers to keep the delivery of this course updated and enthusiastic.  

The course is taught with a very low student to tutor ratio (a scientist for every 3-5 students) so it is likely that you will meet a number of scientists during your course. This also allows students to spend as much time as they need to practice techniques until they are confident. We allow students to make (safe) mistakes and correct their own work so that they learn from their own mistakes, and we encourage students to try different approaches to solve a laboratory-based problem.

The course includes lunch with time for networking and seeking advice from the lecturers available. Over the years, BioGrad lecturers have taught essential practical skills to thousands of graduate students to help develop students’ CV’s and improve their employability after education.    

The course covers practical tuition in the following areas:

• Laboratory Health and Safety including Risk Assessments and COSHH
• Different pipettes, pipetting techniques  
• Balance   
• Serial dilutions and stock solutions (Molarity).   
• Adjusting and measuring pH of stock solutions  
• Preparing dose-response curves (and their calculations)  
• Measuring dose-response data using plate-based absorbance  
• Maintenance of laboratory notebooks
• Laboratory maintenance  

Learning Outcomes:

• Prepare and complete COSHH forms and risk assessment for any chemical independently. 
• Make stock solutions and explain how they calculate the concentration to prepare the stocks. 
• Use the balance to weigh chemicals and prepare serial dilutions.  
• Use different types of pipettes safely, adjust and measure the pH of various stock solutions.
• Able to prepare dose-response curves (and their calculations). 
• Measuring dose-response data using plate-based absorbance.  
• Maintain accurate lab book notes. 

Unlike other institutions, we do not attempt to ‘cram’ lots of different methods into a short course. This full day covers the basic skills of working in any research laboratory. These techniques are taught correctly and allow time for students to repeat each aspect multiple times. When students leave this course, they are confident in their ability to enter a UK laboratory and work in a safe manner using essential pieces of equipment.  

Prerequisites 

As the course is 100% laboratory based and assumes little to no previous laboratory experience, all levels are welcome to attend.

Students with Autism Prerequisites

• Students attending this course are expected to be studying a minimum of A-level science, however we have many undergraduates, graduates looking for laboratory positions, scientists who are interested in returning to the laboratory and MD/PhD students.  
• As the course is 100% laboratory based and assumes little to no previous laboratory experience, all levels are welcome to attend. 

Course Endpoint: 

Attendees will gain valuable insights into the range of careers and laboratory research opportunities available. We have links with many companies that recruit interns and graduates based on our recommendations. On completion of the course, your new skills will be endorsed by our lecturers on LinkedIn and a reference can be provided upon request. 

All our courses can be booked by paying a deposit and using a payment plan over 1,6 or 12 months if required. For more information please contact our Administration Team via email on: student.services@biograd.co.uk or through the contact form here.

Our courses are under constant review to ensure they remain inline with current protocols within the NHS, research and industry. This means that course content may change.