A vocational specialist helps people to find career options that are suited for them. He/She does this by assessing the individual's skills and interests through interviews and aptitude tests. He/She then matches their most likely career options to available employment opportunities.
Some of your duties might include coaching clients and helping them to develop marketable skills, and assisting them in preparing their resumes. You will also be required to keep your clients' records and partner with potential employers in organizations or companies. Some of your clients might include people living with physical or mental disabilities. You would often find work with state governments, veteran programs, or private agencies.
An entry-level role will require a bachelor's degree in psychology or a related field. Great communication skills, integrity, critical thinking, and great interpersonal relationship skills are all important to function as a great vocational specialist. The average salary for a vocational specialist is $17.74 hourly, which amounts to about $36,901 annually.
How to Become a Vocational Specialist
What is a Vocational Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Vocational Specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.57 an hour? That's $42,778 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 27,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Vocational Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many Vocational Specialists 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 Speaking skills, Listening skills and Analytical skills.
How To Become a Vocational Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a Vocational Specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 61.7% of Vocational Specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.8% of Vocational Specialists have master's degrees. Even though most Vocational Specialists 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 a Vocational Specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a Vocational Specialist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Vocational Specialist resumes include Associate Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Vocational Specialist. In fact, many Vocational Specialist jobs require experience in a role such as Case Manager. Meanwhile, many Vocational Specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as Internship or Employment Specialist.
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Vocational Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of Team Leader you might progress to a role such as Manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Executive Director.
Vocational Specialist Jobs You Might Like
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 a Vocational Specialist
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Choose From 10+ Customizable Vocational Specialist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Vocational Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Vocational Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Vocational Specialist Demographics
Vocational Specialist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Vocational Specialists, 68.3% of them are women, while 31.7% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Vocational Specialists is White, which makes up 69.8% of all Vocational Specialists.
- The most common foreign language among Vocational Specialists is Spanish at 64.7%.
Find the best Vocational Specialist job for you
Vocational Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Vocational Specialist Jobs - $54K and Up
- Work From Home Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Entry Level Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Vocational Specialist Jobs
Top Colleges for Vocational Specialists
1. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
3. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
4. New York University
New York, NY • Private
5. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Private
6. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
8. San Jose State University
San Jose, CA • Private
9. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
10. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
Find the best Vocational Specialist job for you
Vocational Specialist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Vocational Specialist Jobs - $54K and Up
- Work From Home Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Entry Level Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Part Time Vocational Specialist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Vocational Specialist Jobs
Online Courses For Vocational Specialist That You May Like
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Top Skills For a Vocational Specialist
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, 13.5% of Vocational Specialists listed Vocational Rehabilitation on their resume, but soft skills such as Speaking skills and Listening skills are important as well.
Best States For a Vocational Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Vocational Specialist. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Washington. Vocational Specialists make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $52,316. Whereas in California and Connecticut, they would average $51,279 and $49,803, respectively. While Vocational Specialists would only make an average of $49,389 in Washington, 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. Massachusetts
$52,316
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$49,389
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$49,803
Avg. Salary