How To Become A Student Assistant Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a student assistant technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average student assistant technician salary is $29,845. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an occupational therapy major. It usually takes 6-12 months of experience to become a student assistant technician. Student assistant technicians with a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 25% and produce 11,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreStudent Assistant TechnicianUS Average

Salary

2.3

Avg. Salary $29,845

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 25%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.76%

Asian 5.20%

Black or African American 8.87%

Hispanic or Latino 8.56%

Unknown 5.81%

White 70.80%

Gender

female 68.49%

male 31.51%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.8

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.2

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a student assistant technician

Explore student assistant technician education requirements

Most common student assistant technician degrees

Bachelor's

42.0 %

Associate

39.4 %

High School Diploma

8.0 %

Start to develop specific student assistant technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	29.96%
Occupational Therapy	11.96%
Rehabilitation	9.47%
Patient Care	9.25%
Simplification	4.49%

Complete relevant student assistant technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New student assistant technicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a student assistant technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real student assistant technician resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed student assistant technician usually require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed student assistant technician in most of states. 37 states require student assistant technicians to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alabama	-	-	Licensed Occupational Therapist Assistant
Alaska	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Occupational Therapy Assistant
Arkansas	Specific course required	State exam required	Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA)
California	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Occupational Therapy Assistant
Colorado	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Occupational Therapy Assistant

Research student assistant technician duties and responsibilities

Spearhead companies launch into social media, including creating and managing firm's first twitter account.
Deliver skilled occupational therapy services to a variety of patients, including medically complicate and fragile patients on ventilator support.
Prioritize and deliver effective patient centered care to establish rapport and increase patients' independence with activities.
Compose written reports of data collect from patient evaluation and present to department chief for thorough analysis of patient diagnosis.

Prepare your student assistant technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your student assistant technician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a student assistant technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable student assistant technician resume templates

Build a professional student assistant technician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your student assistant technician resume.

Apply for student assistant technician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a student assistant technician job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do student assistant technicians rate their job?

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Student assistant technician reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

I absolutely loved working with the elderly and veteran populations in skilled nursing facilities and at the VA hospital. I thoroughly enjoy empowering people to live their best lives and I'm heart broken that I will no longer be able to find employment in this field.

Cons

I absolutely loved working as a COTA these past seven years but it has been filled with ups and downs. Working at skilled nursing facilities is difficult due to high productivity demands impacting therapist ability to give patient centered care. Now with the new patient driven payment model change to medicare laws, therapists are being laid off left and right. These therapists, like myself, will have the impossible task of trying to find work in the Seattle area - which has been flooded with newly graduated COTAs due to several OTA schools opening in this area. The jobs in pediatrics and at hospitals that are left will see in increase in competition as the displaces/laid off COTAs rush to those jobs.