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Overview
Design or conduct work-related training and development programs to improve individual skills or organizational performance. May analyze organizational training needs or evaluate training effectiveness.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($83K): Nursing
Largest undergraduate program (9.6% of workers): Business Management and Administration
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Training and development specialists typically do the following:
- Assess training needs through surveys, interviews with employees, or consultations with managers or instructors
- Design and create training manuals, online learning modules, and course materials
- Review training materials from a variety of sources and choose appropriate materials
- Deliver training to employees using a variety of instructional techniques
- Assist in the evaluation of training programs
- Perform administrative tasks such as monitoring costs, scheduling classes, setting up systems and equipment, and coordinating enrollment
Training and development specialists help create, administer, and deliver training programs for businesses and organizations. To do this, they must first assess the needs of an organization, and then develop custom training programs that take place in classrooms or training facilities. Training programs are increasingly delivered through computers, tablets, or other hand-held devices.
Training and development specialists organize or deliver training sessions using lectures, group discussions, team exercises, hands-on examples, and other formats. Training can also be in the form of a video, self-guided instructional manual, or online application. Training may be collaborative, which allows employees to connect informally with experts, mentors, and colleagues, often through the use of technology.
Training and development specialists may monitor instructors, guide employees through media-based programs, or facilitate informal or collaborative learning programs.
Salary
Median salary: $62,700 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $45,870 and $83,510.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for training and development specialists
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Training and Development Specialists
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of training and development specialists who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (67%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Training and Development Specialists? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Analytical skills
Training and development specialists must evaluate training programs, methods, and materials, and choose those that best fit each situation.
Communication skills
Specialists need strong interpersonal skills because delivering training programs requires collaboration with instructors, trainees, and subject-matter experts. They accomplish much of their work through teams. Specialists must communicate information clearly and facilitate learning by diverse audiences.
Creativity
Specialists should be creative when developing training materials. They may need to think of and implement new approaches, such as new technology, when evaluating existing training methods.
Instructional skills
Training and development specialists often deliver training programs to employees. They use a variety of teaching techniques and sometimes must adapt their methods to meet the needs of particular groups.
Injury and Illness
About 17 training and development specialists become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 52% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
All multiple traumatic injuries
Bruises and contusions
All cuts, lacerations, punctures
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by training and development specialists
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), training and development specialists typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as training and development specialists as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for training and development specialists
Training and development specialists need a bachelor’s degree. Specialists may have a variety of education backgrounds, but most have a bachelor’s degree in training and development, human resources, education, or instructional design. Others may have a degree in business administration or a social science, such as educational or organizational psychology.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for training and development specialists
Many human resources associations offer classes to enhance the skills of their members. Some associations, including the Association for Talent Development and International Society for Performance Improvement, specialize in training and development and offer certification programs. Although not required, certification can show professional expertise and credibility. Some employers prefer to hire certified candidates, and some positions may require certification.
Education level of Training and Development Specialists
About 55% of training and development specialists have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by training and development specialists
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 53% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by training and development specialists
This table shows the college majors held by people working as training and development specialists. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click a program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Program
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as training and development specialists, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
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Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Training and Development Specialists per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most training and development specialists? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as training and development specialists. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where training and development specialists earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for training and development specialists compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for training and development specialists.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which training and development specialists earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Training and Development Specialists (ACS)
Employment
8% of Training and development specialists are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 8% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 64% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of training and development specialists by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Training and development specialists and gender
With 54% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 67% of careers.
Gender of Training and development specialists
Men (46%)
Women (54%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for training and development specialists tops that, with the median salary for
men 20% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Training and development specialists
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Training and development specialists.
Race/origin of training and development specialists
White (76% )
Black (14% )
Asian (3% )
Multiracial (3% )
Other (2% )
American Indian (1% )
Hispanic (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
