diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 30a8cd8fe4c08fd3fe0f3f98aaa56b83cb623086..201d278bf64c408db33099c823a684587dfbb5d1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -113,14 +113,28 @@ info:
   script:
     - *env
 
-unittest:
+unittest_py3.9:
   tags: [cached-dind]
-  image: docker:20.10
   stage: test
   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE
   script:
       - tox
 
+unittest_py3.8:
+  tags: [cached-dind]
+  stage: test
+  image: python:3.8
+  script: &python_test_script
+    # install dependencies
+    - pip install pytest pytest-cov
+    # TODO: Use f-branch logic here
+    - pip install git+https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-pylib.git@dev
+    - pip install git+https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-advanced-user-tools.git@dev
+    # actual test
+    - caosdb-crawler --help
+    - pytest --cov=caosdb -vv ./unittests
+    
+
 inttest:
   tags: [docker]
   services: