The skills of a teacher are applicable to a wide range of jobs in the education field besides teaching. That’s especially (but not exclusively) true for candidates who are further qualified with an advanced degree.

If you’ve ever wondered, “what else can I do with my education degree?”, exploring a few examples of alternative careers in education can help illuminate the full extent of your options.

Jobs In Education Field Besides Teaching

If you have a teaching degree but don’t want to teach in a formal classroom setting, there are a wealth of opportunities for rewarding career paths. Other jobs for education majors may include working with the public as a museum curator or guide, as well as within the realm of educational policy and research -- helping to set the tone for other educators.

Conversely, there are also career paths that allow those with an education degree to work with children, or even training adults in the corporate sector. Here are a few alternative careers for those with a teaching degree.

Museum Curator or Guide

Archivists, curators, guides: museums provide a variety of career opportunities for teachers and those with a background in education. Guides are responsible for providing an interesting and informative educational experience to visiting groups. Archivists preserve and study collections of historical interest, while curators manage, organize, and arrange exhibits.

Museums can also provide an entry-point for a wide variety of niche academic interests. According to the BLS, museum workers earn a median annual salary of $49,850.

Information Science

An information scientist is responsible for ensuring that information gets where it needs to be. These positions can be great for educators due to their insight on how people access and learn information.

Information scientists can work in a variety of different environments: professional associations, charities, government positions, libraries, and public/private sector groups. You may need a sector-specific degree for some positions; but BLS data suggests information research scientists earn a median salary of $122,840 per year.

Education Policy and Research

What should people be learning, and who should be teaching it? In the broadest sense, working in education policy and research means developing new ways to improve the education system, analyzing problems, and testing policies/practices to ensure they’re effective.

These positions are ideal for people with a background in teaching. To help stand out among other candidates, teachers could choose to add a Certificate in Education Policy, which can be completed in just one year. According to GlassDoor, the average base pay for an education policy analyst is $58,926.

Corporate Trainer

Corporate trainers are like teachers, except they help professionals to improve upon job-specific duties or other development goals. While this is still fundamentally an education career, it’s a considerable change of pace from teaching in a classroom environment.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree, you will typically need an advanced degree in a related area, like the MS in Human Resource Development. According to the BLS, Training and Development Specialists earn $61,210 median annual pay.

Teacher Abroad

While teaching abroad is still technically teaching, it can also be a distinctly different experience from working as an educator in a US-based classroom. It allows you to engage in new kinds of academic challenges, explore new environments, and there’s just about always a high demand for English-speaking teachers abroad.

Our MS in Global and International Education provides graduates with the chance to pursue a variety of domestic and international career opportunities, learning to blend educational theory and practice for use in a variety of career paths.

From different subjects to different parts of the world, there are many ways to teach abroad. But according to the BLS, foreign language and literature teachers earn a median income of $80,170.

Recruiting Coordinator or Director of Recruiting for a Sports Team

Sports teams coordinators doing a variety of tasks, from coaching to evaluating potential talent. Similarly, an athletic director provides guidance for a school’s athletic programs. From coordinating practices with coaches to mediating disputes, a director is responsible for ensuring all the bureaucratic elements of running a sports team are properly overseen.

Athletic directors usually begin their careers as teachers; which is also a preferred qualification for sports coaches and team coordinators. A program like the MS in Sport Coaching Leadership is ideal for these career paths.

Median annual pay for coaches and scouts was $34,840 in 2019. The BLS has categorized athletic director as equivalent to a postsecondary education administrator, earning a median income of $95,410 per year.

Writing/Publishing

Writing and publishing careers present a variety of opportunities, (sales, editing, etc.) many of which can benefit from a background in teaching. Many people with a background in education run successful blogs, or otherwise transition into writing careers. A variety of differently-skilled writers are needed to create advertising content, technical manuals, novels, blog posts, newspaper columns, and so on.

With the addition of experience in Creativity and Innovation, these types of careers can be taken into a variety of educational, governmental, and private for-profit settings. According to the BLS, Writers/Authors earn a median annual salary of $63,200, while Editors earn $61,370.

Other Things You Can Do With a Teaching Degree

It takes years to develop the skills necessary to excel in most careers, and that’s also true among most jobs in education field besides teaching. But with persistence and the right guidance, it’s much easier to achieve your goals. Continue your journey toward an alternative education career by requesting more information about how our programs can prepare you for success.