Career Guidance Handbook 2014
Occupational Category -8: Health Science
The health science career cluster has five pathways: supportive services, information and communication services, diagnostic services, therapeutic services, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical services.
Supportive Services
Workers in this pathway are responsible for administration, building and equipment maintenance, and environmental quality monitoring-all services that are vital to the provision of health care. Jobs include biomedical equipment technician, supply technician, industrial hygienist, maintenance worker, housekeeper, and environmental health specialist.
Information and Communication Services
Workers in this pathway are responsible for managing and organising health information, and for making that information available to the appropriate people. Jobs include admitting clerk, medical records administrator, hospital administrator, medical transcriptionist, medical coder, medical biller, and health educator.
Diagnostic Services
Jobs in this pathway focus on the diagnosis of illness and disease.
Occupations include radiographer, cytotechnologist, histotechnologist, sonographer, blood bank technologist, medical technician, phlebotomist, and dosimetrist.
Therapeutic Services
Workers in this pathway provide treatment and therapy for diseases and disorders. Jobs include EMT/paramedic, physician, physician assistant, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, physical therapist, chiropractor, optometrist, audiologist, respiratory therapist, and speech pathologist.
Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Services
Jobs in this pathway focus on research and development of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Occupations in this pathway include pharmaceutical technician, cytobiologist, biostatistician, microbiologist, and research lab technician.
There is still huge demand for personnel in this career clusters, since occupational categories like medical doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, public health officers, medical researchers, etc, are still in disproportion to the internationally recommended ratio, for instance, doctor or nurse to patient ratio. There is also high demand for nurses and doctors in other countries in the region and internationally. For instance, there is very high demand for nurses in Europe and the Americas. This offers an opportunity, if more and more people train in these fields, for labour export, rather than brain-drain at the expense of delivering the much needed services to our local community/society.
Appropriate Subject Combinations at 'A' Level:
PCB/M, PCB/FN, PCB/ AGRIC, BCM/ENT, BCM/ AGRIC, BCM/ ART, BCG, BAG, ABC, PCB/Language, BC/FN
Subjects at 'O' Level:
Math, English and all the Science Subjects
Courses and Career Development Prospects
Supportive Services
Workers in this pathway are responsible for administration, building and equipment maintenance, and environmental quality monitoring-all services that are vital to the provision of health care. Jobs include biomedical equipment technician, supply technician, industrial hygienist, maintenance worker, housekeeper, and environmental health specialist.
Information and Communication Services
Workers in this pathway are responsible for managing and organising health information, and for making that information available to the appropriate people. Jobs include admitting clerk, medical records administrator, hospital administrator, medical transcriptionist, medical coder, medical biller, and health educator.
Diagnostic Services
Jobs in this pathway focus on the diagnosis of illness and disease.
Occupations include radiographer, cytotechnologist, histotechnologist, sonographer, blood bank technologist, medical technician, phlebotomist, and dosimetrist.
Therapeutic Services
Workers in this pathway provide treatment and therapy for diseases and disorders. Jobs include EMT/paramedic, physician, physician assistant, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, physical therapist, chiropractor, optometrist, audiologist, respiratory therapist, and speech pathologist.
Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Services
Jobs in this pathway focus on research and development of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Occupations in this pathway include pharmaceutical technician, cytobiologist, biostatistician, microbiologist, and research lab technician.
There is still huge demand for personnel in this career clusters, since occupational categories like medical doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, public health officers, medical researchers, etc, are still in disproportion to the internationally recommended ratio, for instance, doctor or nurse to patient ratio. There is also high demand for nurses and doctors in other countries in the region and internationally. For instance, there is very high demand for nurses in Europe and the Americas. This offers an opportunity, if more and more people train in these fields, for labour export, rather than brain-drain at the expense of delivering the much needed services to our local community/society.
Appropriate Subject Combinations at 'A' Level:
PCB/M, PCB/FN, PCB/ AGRIC, BCM/ENT, BCM/ AGRIC, BCM/ ART, BCG, BAG, ABC, PCB/Language, BC/FN
Subjects at 'O' Level:
Math, English and all the Science Subjects
Courses and Career Development Prospects
- Medicine & Surgery
- Dental Surgery
- Pharmacy
- Medical Radiography
- Vet Medicine
- Bio-Medical Laboratory Technology
- Environmental Health Science
- Vocational Studies (Home Economics)
- Human nutrition & dietetics
- Animal production Technology
- Wild Life Health Management
- Food Science & Technology
- Sports Science
- Air Conditioning
- Water Engineering
- Nursing
- Science Technology (Biology)
- Plumbing
For Secondary Schools