Jobs for Education Majors

Education majors regularly face challenges in finding employment. New teachers are regularly laid off due to first hired-first hired rules put in place by teacher's unions. Teachers who retired to lock in pension benefits may find themselves needing additional income.

What types of jobs are available to education majors who can't find teaching positions?

• Literacy tutoring for pre-school, kindergarten and first grade students requires time and patience that many parents do not have. And unlike tutoring for other subjects, anyone with an educational degree is qualified to sit with children to practice phonics and Dolch sight words.
• Provide respite care for the families of children with autism, retardation and health challenges. Because of mainstreaming and the shut down of special schools, supply has not caught up with the demand. Religious organizations and non-profits have set up respite childcare for these children but always need volunteers. Paid positions do exist in with some groups as do grant writing positions.
• English Second Language (ESL) instruction is reinforced by practice. One does not need ESL certification to work as an intern or paid conversation partner.
• Teaching life skills courses to teenagers and young adults is often better received when coming from someone of a similar age. Life skills range from basic home-making to financial skills to job hunting.
• Story telling and reading stories in preschool reading groups is available on a volunteer basis in libraries across the nation. Reading children’s books at a book store to build up sales of children’s titles can be a paid position in some stores.
• When a child is using an online schooling curriculum, a parent may be freed from the minutia of teaching their child. However, children cannot be left alone and unsupervised while taking lessons online. Someone with an educational degree can provide supervision for groups of homeschooling students taking their coursework online and provide logs of time worked.
• Test proctors are paid to supervise students taking tests. Interns frequently take tests to generate an estimate of how long it will take a student to complete the test or to generate an estimated difficulty rating of the test.
• Online education is expanding rapidly. However, questions do arise from students and parents for any online application, whether in technical support or about the educational material itself. Work as an online tutor or technical support for educational websites.
• Due to copyright constraints, word problems and literary samples can rarely be reused in new workbooks. Create unique test questions and sample problems for educational workbooks.
• Become a reviewer for various text books, online curriculum and educational websites. Look for errors in the content others have written.
• Research various educational content and teacher's websites for writing gigs. They need people to review curriculum, books. flash cards and games. This is an especially good way to make money if you can use these materials tutoring other people's children.
• Get paid by parenting magazines to review local parks, daycares, entertainment venues and family-friendly activities. You could be paid $5 to $50 for each review, depending on demand.
• Work at museums, botanical gardens and especially small local historical sites as a guide.
• Get a copy of the local parenting magazine. Find local homeschooling groups that may be willing to hire you as a facilitator for various lessons, especially if you can guide children through middle school and high school science labs.