Quick answer: Four degrees covering the same underlying skill - teaching adults something technical - split by employer. Programs, the careers this degree opens, and what they pay are covered below.
The One Family Where Your Trade Is the Qualification
Most degrees on this site add something to a trade background. This family is the reverse: the trade background is the entry requirement and the degree is what gets layered on.
Every welding instructor was a welder. Every HVAC instructor installed HVAC. Community colleges and technical centres hire on demonstrated competence - the journeyman card, the industry certification, the documented years in the field - and a teaching credential without any of that is worth very little in a technical programme.
That makes this the one family where a reader of this site is already partly qualified before enrolling in anything.
Before you request information anywhere, check which CTE licensure route your state runs and how supervised classroom hours are arranged. With that checked, compare online education programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering Education Degrees
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Which licensure route your state runs. Secondary CTE licensure varies more between states than almost anything else on this site, including whether an alternative certification pathway exists for career changers and how much industry experience counts.
Whether the programme places you for supervised teaching. Licensure routes include classroom hours in a real school, and how those are arranged differs by programme.
Whether you can start as an adjunct first. At postsecondary level this is the normal way in, and it lets you find out whether you enjoy teaching before restructuring your working life around it.
What the programme produces. For the corporate route, a portfolio matters. Coursework that leaves you with nothing to show is worth less than coursework that does.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
With those checks done, the remaining question is which employer you want to teach for.
The School Route
Teaching covers the CTE certification path - how trade experience converts into a classroom credential, the Praxis examinations, and how secondary and postsecondary routes differ. Secondary licensure runs through a state education agency, and states differ substantially in how much industry experience substitutes for coursework.
The honest note on pay: CTE teaching at $66,270 is below most licensed trades at journeyman level and below every supervision path on this site. People take it for the schedule, the physical demands and the nature of the work. That is a legitimate reason; it is not a wage argument.
The Employer Route
Training and development is the corporate version and the larger opportunity: 458,300 specialists at a median $69,280, projected to change by 10.8 percent through 2034, with the manager tier at $133,000.
The specialisations that are hardest to staff are exactly the technical ones - safety and compliance training, equipment and process training, apprenticeship and workforce programmes, and manufacturer field-service training. Each of those wants someone with technical credibility in the room, which is scarcer than general instructional ability.
Instructional design is the largest single job title inside this route, and it is a field where a portfolio of work frequently outweighs the credential in hiring.
School Support and Communication Degrees
Eight further degrees sit near this family without being teaching credentials. Read them as adjacent routes, not as substitutes for a CTE certification.
Inside schools.Special education is a licensed classroom credential in its own right, and communication disorders is the speech services ladder that runs alongside it. Kinesiology covers physical education and the adapted PE specialisation, and it also feeds clinical routes outside schools entirely.
Teaching and explaining outside schools.Technical writing is the closest relative of the corporate training route above - documenting equipment and procedures rather than delivering the session. Communications, journalism, public relations and graphic design are the media and messaging degrees, and they are where instructional and internal-communication work often sits inside an employer.
What These Careers Pay
Schools pay less and offer the schedule: CTE teaching sits at a median $66,270. Employers pay more and are growing faster: corporate training specialists at $69,280 and training managers at $133,000, with a projected 10.8 percent change against 0.7 percent for postsecondary teaching (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Schools or Employers
Destination
Example role
Median
Employment
Projected change
Schools and colleges
Secondary CTE teachers
$66,270
111,420
-1.8%
Curriculum and programme roles
Instructional coordinators
$77,440
227,760
1.3%
Employers
Training and development specialists
$69,280
458,300
10.8%
Employers, senior
Training and development managers
$133,000
48,050
5.8%
Wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The comparison worth sitting with: corporate training employs four times as many people as school CTE teaching and is growing while the school side contracts slightly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I teach my trade without an education degree?
At the postsecondary level, usually yes to begin with. Community colleges and technical centres hire on demonstrated trade competence - the journeyman card, the industry certification, the documented years - and the teaching credential is layered on afterwards. Secondary teaching runs through a state education agency's licensure route instead.
Which of these pays best?
Corporate training management, at a median $133,000, well ahead of instructional coordinators at $77,440 and training specialists at $69,280 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). School-based CTE teaching sits at $66,270.
Teaching or corporate training?
Largely the same skill deployed for a different employer. Corporate training is four times the size and growing considerably faster - a projected 10.8 percent change against 0.7 percent for postsecondary CTE teaching (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Schools offer schedule and pension; employers offer pay and growth.
Can these be done online?
Yes, quite completely. There is no clinical placement and no shop requirement. Teaching licensure routes usually include supervised classroom hours, which happen in a real school, but the coursework around them is routinely online.
Is a trade background actually useful?
It is the entry requirement for the CTE side rather than a bonus. Every trade taught in a technical college is taught by someone who worked in it, which makes this the one family where the trade is the qualification and the degree is the addition.
What is instructional design?
Building the training rather than delivering it - needs analysis, learning objectives, materials and assessment. It is the largest single job title inside corporate training, and portfolios frequently matter more than credentials in hiring.
Is the pay a step down from a trade?
Often, on the school side. CTE teaching at a median $66,270 is below most licensed trades at journeyman level and below every supervision path on this site. The argument for it is the schedule, the physical demands and the work itself rather than the wage. Individual outcomes may vary.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Training and Development Specialists (SOC 13-1151), Training and Development Managers (SOC 11-3131), Instructional Coordinators (SOC 25-9031), Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School (SOC 25-2032), Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary (SOC 25-1194)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
