A certificate proves you studied. A hospital internship proves you can do the job. Through signed clinical-affiliation agreements with real health systems, ATS students earn hands-on experience and step into the field.
Complete your program and prep for the CRCST on the HSPA 9th Edition.
We connect eligible students to clinical sites for real, supervised hands-on hours.
Resume help, interview prep, and placement support as you move into the field.
Our clinical-affiliation agreements open doors into working sterile processing departments — real cases, real equipment, real experience employers trust.
Real hospital workflow
On the floor in PPESterile processing is a hands-on profession. Hiring managers want to see that you’ve worked in a real decontamination and sterilization workflow — not just that you passed an exam. That’s the gap most online-only courses leave wide open.
“HSPA does not provide placement services; it is your responsibility to find a department in which to complete your hours.”
— HSPA Certification Handbook, revised January 2026
That is the sentence most people don’t read until after they’ve passed the exam. The 400 hours are required, and finding a hospital willing to host them is left entirely to you.
ATS was built around closing it. Our clinical-affiliation agreements are the part competitors can’t copy with a video library, and they’re why our students don’t just get certified — they get to work.
Internship placement is not included in any ATS tuition. Tuition covers class time and exam preparation. Through our signed clinical-affiliation agreements we work to place students, but placement depends on facility capacity, your eligibility and your location — it is not part of what you buy, and it is never guaranteed. How the 400 hours work →
In practice that means: availability depends on eligibility, your location, and what capacity our clinical partners have at the time. In-person students have the strongest path, because we’ve worked alongside them and can speak to how they’ll represent ATS in a department. Your tuition also has to be paid in full — we don’t refer a student for placement while a balance is outstanding.
If you’re outside the Philadelphia and South Jersey area, we are honest about the limit: our agreements are regional, and we can’t place students in fifty states. What we can do anywhere is help you search — resume help, interview prep, and a specific list of employers worth approaching. Talk to us about your situation.
Start with the program that fits you — live virtual or hands-on in-person.