If you're interested in helping seniors and want to have a fulfilling, fun experience in a nursing home setting, an activity director position may be right for you. In general, an activity director plans and coordinates social, physical, and cognitive activity programs to enhance and promote the life-quality of elderly individuals, retirement communities, and aging services. An Activity director role allows you to flex your communication, planning, and interpersonal skills.
As an activity director, usually, you may plan and schedule monthly activity calendars, coordinate therapeutic activities, such as exercise classes, game nights, cultural events, and all those programs that can balance the mental and physical well-being of senior individuals. As an activity director, you may work in several settings, including residential facilities, nursing homes, day centers, community camps, or organizations.
To become an activity director, most commonly, you may need a bachelor's degree in recreation therapy. However, you may be able to get this role with a high school diploma and relevant experience. To be successful, you must demonstrate patience, flexibility, compassion, and a desire to help others. Not only that, but by improving your soft skills, you can see plenty of opportunities to advance your career within a nursing home.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an Activities Director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.28 an hour? That's $33,872 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 33,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Activities Directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Communication skills, Flexibility and Leadership skills.
If you're interested in becoming an Activities Director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 56.6% of Activities Directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.7% of Activities Directors have master's degrees. Even though most Activities Directors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an Activities Director. When we researched the most common majors for an Activities Director, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Activities Director resumes include High School Diploma degrees or Master's Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an Activities Director. In fact, many Activities Director jobs require experience in a role such as Certified Nursing Assistant. Meanwhile, many Activities Directors also have previous career experience in roles such as Activity Assistant or Cashier.