Article by dr Tim Sandle. Extract:"The training and assessment of staff working in a microbiology laboratory is of great importance, both to give confidence in the results produced by the laboratory and to satisfy regulatory inspectors. Guidance in developing a suitable training and assessment scheme is limited. There is a mass of published material relating to training in general, and there is a reasonable amount of published material related to training of staff in clean room behavior. There is little, however, devoted to the training and qualification of staff working in the microbiological laboratory itself."