An Activity Assistant usually serves in an extended care center and helps residents stay as healthy as possible. He/she is responsible for researching the appropriate activities to stimulate the mind and the body, so they must keep up-to-date with the latest trends. Acting with outside organizations is typically essential to procure teachers for specific tasks. Some classes may not have lesson plans, so they will need to be created and structured by the activities assistant. Another critical part of the job is scheduling the activities and making sure they are optimal times and do not conflict.
Many of their activities get carried out on campus; however, some activities might require travel. The activities assistant may personally be responsible for transporting patients to off-campus activities, for which they will need a valid driver's license.
An affinity for working with people with a caring and patient attitude is essential, as some residents will have special needs. On the other hand, most positions only require a high school diploma or GED. However, you must be able to present years of experience working in this field. If you successfully hold all these, you can make $11.45 per hour.
Activity Assistant Overview
Activity Assistant Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an activity assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.29 an hour? That's $27,653 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 13% and produce 52,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Activity Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many activity assistants 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 interpersonal skills, organizational skills and time-management skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an activity assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.7% of activity assistants included recreational activities, while 7.5% of resumes included communication, and 7.5% of resumes included customer service. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the activity assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most activity assistants actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become an Activity Assistant
If you're interested in becoming an activity assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 35.4% of activity assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.2% of activity assistants have master's degrees. Even though some activity assistants 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 activity assistant. When we researched the most common majors for an activity assistant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on activity assistant resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an activity assistant. In fact, many activity assistant jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many activity assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as certified nursing assistant or sales associate.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Activity Assistant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an activity assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as certified nursing assistant, progress to a title such as registered nurse and then eventually end up with the title nursing director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Activity Assistant
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
The Birches at Harleysville Activities Director, Activities Assistant, LPN Activities Director, Activities Assistant, LPN | The Birches at Harleysville The Birches at Harleysville | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $37,56603/31/2021 $37,566 |
Sunrise Senior Living Activities Assistant Activities Assistant | Sunrise Senior Living Sunrise Senior Living | 03/29/2021 03/29/2021 | $39,65303/29/2021 $39,653 |
St. Louis Community College Ww-Student Activities Assistant II Ww-Student Activities Assistant II | St. Louis Community College St. Louis Community College | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $32,59903/27/2021 $32,599 |
State of Nebraska Activity Assistant Activity Assistant | State of Nebraska State of Nebraska | 03/26/2021 03/26/2021 | $30,82503/26/2021 $30,825 |
Sunrise Senior Living Activities Assistant Activities Assistant | Sunrise Senior Living Sunrise Senior Living | 03/23/2021 03/23/2021 | $30,26203/23/2021 $30,262 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Activity Assistant Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Activity Assistant. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Activity Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Activity Assistant resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Activity Assistants
1. California State University - Fullerton
Fullerton, CA • Public
2. University of Delaware
Newark, DE • Public
3. Minnesota State University - Mankato
Mankato, MN • Public
4. California State University - San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA • Public
5. SUNY College at Brockport
Brockport, NY • Public
6. California State University - Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA • Public
7. Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, IL • Public
8. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Aguadilla
Aguadilla, PR • Private
9. Towson University
Towson, MD • Public
10. Saint Joseph's College, New York
Brooklyn, NY • Private
Top Skills For an Activity Assistant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 9.7% of activity assistants listed recreational activities on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.
- Recreational Activities, 9.7%
- Communication, 7.5%
- Customer Service, 7.5%
- Activity Programs, 7.5%
- Transport Residents, 5.9%
- Other Skills, 61.9% See All Activity Assistant Skills
Best States For an Activity Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an activity assistant. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, California, Maine, and Connecticut. Activity assistants make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $37,784. Whereas in California and Maine, they would average $33,085 and $30,982, respectively. While activity assistants would only make an average of $30,871 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$37,784
Avg. Salary
2. District of Columbia
$38,899
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$28,805
Avg. Salary
How Do Activity Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Activity Assistant Employers
Activity Assistant Videos
