What can you do with a Masters in Education? This is the question you’ll be asking yourself if you’re considering signing up for a program – and it’s a question you’ll no doubt be asked countless times by friends and family throughout your course of study if you do enter a program. Even if your primary motivation for advanced study is a simple passion for education, you still need to know what options are open to you once you qualify and what kind of career paths particular specializations can lead to.

And to answer the most pressing question that’s probably on your mind: yes, you can do something other than become a teacher once you qualify.

What Can You Do With a Masters in Education: Jobs for a Masters in Education Grad

Let’s start by taking a look at a whole lot of jobs that Masters in Education grads can attain. Then we’ll zoom in and look at how some of the most popular specialized courses within the category of Education Masters can open new doors in specific areas of the education sector.

Here are some common jobs you may be able to get once you qualify:

• education resource manager
• clinical nurse educator
• staff educator (in a variety of industries)
• tutor
• high school teacher
• university lecturer
• elementary teacher
• business administrator (within an educational institution)
• career services director
• educational software consultant
• ESOL teacher
• business English teacher
• student services coordinator
• youth counselor
• early childhood teacher
• school psychologist

Obviously, some of these are quite general – tutoring, for instance. Exactly what you can tutor in will depend on your skillset (Spanish lessons, music, English, maths, etc). Some of these will also require some knowledge and training outside of your Education degree itself.

Now, you might look at some of those job titles and think – what the heck does that mean? Some of these roles are quite specialized and will only be available to someone with a specialized Masters in Education. So let’s now turn our attention to the specializations open to you and the kinds of day-to-day tasks you may end up doing once you have one of these degrees.

The jobs open to you will also depend on whether you did an on-campus or online Masters in Education, since most online programs require separate certification before you can take teaching jobs.

What Can You Do with a Masters in Educational Psychology?

Specializing in educational psychology can open all kinds of doors for you in the rewarding careers of counseling and tutoring disadvantaged kids.

School psychologists and counselors help kids work through emotional and behavioral problems. Career counselors help students at the high school and university levels plan their future career paths. If you’re interested in working with children struggling with behavioral and learning disabilities such as autism, this may be a good option for you – although the next specialization is probably more in line with what you want to do.

What Can You Do with a Masters in Special Education?

A Masters in Special Education is all about learning strategies and techniques to help kids that don’t quite fit into the usual classroom structure. Some kids with problems like dyslexia simply can’t keep up with the rest of a ‘normal’ class, even if they’re intelligent. This is frustrating for kids, parents, and teachers who don’t know how to deal with the issues at hand.

There’s a growing demand for specialist teachers who can help kids with problems like dyslexia, ADHD and autism.

What Can You Do with a Masters in Higher Education?

As you might have guessed a Masters in Higher Education will prepare you for employment in a higher learning institution like a college, university or professional school, although the available roles are not limited to teaching. Other jobs include student affairs administration, which involves dealing with organizing and managing systems and events that affect the lives and culture of the student body at your workplace.

If you have a bent for business, you can also go into a financial or business management role within an education institution. Even though universities are all about higher learning, they still need to engage in marketing activities to ensure they get enough enrollments and balance the books. There are also many roles available in handling student admissions, administering student residency and various other admin jobs.

What Can You Do with a Masters in Health Education?

Several roles from the list above require a specialized knowledge of health education. The specialized nature of these jobs means the pay can be a little higher compared to the average salaries of some more generic roles open to Masters of Education grads. Jobs for Masters in Health Education grads include titles like parent-child educator (someone who helps new parents learn to care for their child), clinical educator and healthcare administrator. As with higher education degrees, there are jobs available both in active teaching positions and in administration positions within hospitals, clinics and colleges.

However, you should think carefully about whether you really need a Masters in Health Education to pursue the career you want. It may be possible to follow the same career path with a less expensive, less time-intensive qualification.

What Can You Do with a Masters in Education Leadership?

You can go into many traditional teaching roles with a Masters in Education Leadership, but it also gives you the necessary skills to rise to top jobs within schools and universities – becoming a headmaster, principal or dean. If you aspire not only to teach but to oversee the running of an entire educational institution, with a hand in staffing, management and developing school culture, this may be the degree for you. Bear in mind that you’re unlikely to walk straight into a leadership role – you will still probably have to put in a few years of hard work as either a teacher or lower-level administrator. Masters in education roles can be lucrative, but there’s very few of them around and they don’t open up very often.