Instructional Paraprofessional Overview

There are certain skills that many instructional paraprofessionals 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, patience and communication skills.

When it comes to the most important skills required to be an instructional paraprofessional, we found that a lot of resumes listed 21.2% of instructional paraprofessionals included classroom management, while 12.8% of resumes included special education, and 7.4% of resumes included student records. 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 instructional paraprofessional job title. But what industry to start with? Most instructional paraprofessionals actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.

If you're interested in becoming an instructional paraprofessional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 47.2% of instructional paraprofessionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.1% of instructional paraprofessionals have master's degrees. Even though most instructional paraprofessionals 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 instructional paraprofessional. When we researched the most common majors for an instructional paraprofessional, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on instructional paraprofessional resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an instructional paraprofessional. In fact, many instructional paraprofessional jobs require experience in a role such as substitute teacher. Meanwhile, many instructional paraprofessionals also have previous career experience in roles such as administrative assistant or teacher.