Youth development professionals help children and adolescents discover talents, improve abilities, and maximize their potential. They are in charge of developing, implementing, and evaluating various youth development programs, such as mentorship sessions, career days, field trips, and youth seminars, among many others.
Additional duties may include training youth support workers, coordinating with service providers, communicating with school administrators, and completing any necessary paperwork. They may also specialize in a specific development sector, such as public service, learning, or career building, which requires special training and experience in said sector.
Having a degree in psychology, business, or education can put you in a great spot to become a youth development professional. Prior work experience or participation in youth development programs is also a plus. Furthermore, you must show your prospective employer that you are highly communicable, work well with kids, and have a passion for serving others.
As a youth development professional, you can earn a yearly income between $32,000 to $112,000 a year, wherein the average is around $60,000 annually.
How to Become a Youth Development Professional
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a youth development professional. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.49 an hour? That's $36,385 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 81,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Youth Development Professional Do
There are certain skills that many youth development professionals 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 emotional skills, communication skills and interpersonal skills.
How To Become a Youth Development Professional
If you're interested in becoming a youth development professional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 62.7% of youth development professionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.7% of youth development professionals have master's degrees. Even though most youth development professionals 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 youth development professional. When we researched the most common majors for a youth development professional, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on youth development professional resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a youth development professional. In fact, many youth development professional jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many youth development professionals also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or sales associate.
Youth Development Professional 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 business manager.
Average Salary for a Youth Development Professional
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Youth Development Professionals
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Private
3. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
5. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Private
6. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
7. New York University
New York, NY • Private
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
9. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
10. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
Top Skills For a Youth Development Professional
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, 9.6% of youth development professionals listed daily activities on their resume, but soft skills such as emotional skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Youth Development Professional Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Youth Development Professional templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Youth Development Professional resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Youth Development Professional Demographics
Youth Development Professional Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among youth development professionals, 59.0% of them are women, while 41.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among youth development professionals is White, which makes up 65.9% of all youth development professionals.
- The most common foreign language among youth development professionals is Spanish at 58.5%.
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Best States For a Youth Development Professional
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a youth development professional. The best states for people in this position are Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Texas. Youth development professionals make the most in Virginia with an average salary of $58,609. Whereas in North Carolina and New Jersey, they would average $58,182 and $55,278, respectively. While youth development professionals would only make an average of $52,499 in Texas, 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. North Carolina
$58,182
Avg. Salary
2. Florida
$47,051
Avg. Salary
3. New Mexico
$43,509
Avg. Salary
How Do Youth Development Professional Rate Their Jobs?
Top Youth Development Professional Employers
Most Common Employers For Youth Development Professional
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halliburton | $75,064 | $36.09 | 31 |
| 2 | Freddie Mac | $59,833 | $28.77 | 45 |
| 3 | The GEO Group | $55,156 | $26.52 | 11 |
| 4 | Hillcrest Educational Centers | $50,304 | $24.18 | 123 |
| 5 | Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley | $41,682 | $20.04 | 13 |
| 6 | MUFG EMEA | $36,385 | $17.49 | 48 |
| 7 | Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove | $36,385 | $17.49 | 47 |
| 8 | Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Texas | $36,385 | $17.49 | 27 |
| 9 | Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central Georgia | $36,385 | $17.49 | 25 |
| 10 | Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo | $36,385 | $17.49 | 23 |