Teacher Assistant/Aide

What Teacher Assistant/Aide Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, teacher assistant/aide majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Teacher Assistant/Aide Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

Skills for Teacher Assistant/Aide Majors

A major in teacher assistant/aide prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Teacher Assistant/Aide Majors

As a teacher assistant/aide major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

What Can You Do With a Teacher Assistant/Aide Major?

People with a teacher assistant/aide degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Teacher Assistants	8.4%	$26,970

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Teacher Assistant/Aide

Some degrees associated with teacher assistant/aide may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to teacher assistant/aide have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	1.2%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	21.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	31.9%
Some College Courses	24.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	19.3%
Master’s Degree	5.2%

Online Teacher Assistant/Aide Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	71	13
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	1
Associate’s Degree	123	31
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	1	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Teacher Assistant/Aide

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to teacher assistant/aide.

Major	Number of Grads
Other Teaching Assistants/Aides	645
Adult Literacy Tutor/Instructor	15

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By IMCBerea College under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.