Quick answer: Online training and development degrees lead into corporate learning roles - instructional design, technical training, safety and compliance training. The median is $69,280 with a projected 10.8 percent change through 2034 and about 43,900 openings a year, one of the stronger growth rates on this site (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). The professional credentials are the CPTD and APTD from ATD.
| Metric | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median annual wage | $69,280 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Wage range | $38,760 (10th pct) - $123,250 (90th pct) | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Employment | 458,300 training and development specialists | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Projected change (2024-34) | 10.8%, about 43,900 openings per year | BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34 |
| Typical credential | Bachelor’s or master’s; instructional technology is a common program title | Program catalogs |
| Certification | CPTD and APTD, from the Association for Talent Development | ATD |
| Institutions awarding | 432, of which 417 report distance offerings | IPEDS Completions and IC, 2024 |
| SOC codes covered | 13-1151 training and development specialists; 11-3131 training and development managers; 25-1194 postsecondary CTE teachers | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
Most occupations covered on this site are projected to change by a few percent over a decade. This one is projected at 10.8 percent, on a base of 458,300 jobs (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
| Role | Median | 75th percentile | Employment | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postsecondary CTE teachers | $63,820 | $82,360 | 114,110 | 0.7% |
| Training and development specialists | $69,280 | $95,050 | 458,300 | 10.8% |
| Training and development managers | $133,000 | $176,870 | 48,050 | 5.8% |
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The comparison with CTE teaching is the useful one. It is largely the same skill - teaching adults something technical - deployed inside an employer rather than inside a school. The corporate side is four times the size and growing considerably faster.
Training is a field with a wide entry gate and a lot of generalists in it. The specializations that are hard to staff are the technical ones.
Safety and compliance training. OSHA-driven, consequential, and delivered constantly across construction, manufacturing, utilities and transport. Someone who has worked under those standards trains to them differently from someone who has read them.
Equipment and process training. New machinery, new controls, new procedures - somebody has to bring the floor up to speed, and technical credibility is not optional in that room.
Apprenticeship and workforce programs. Registered apprenticeship related instruction, employer academies and community college partnerships all need people who can bridge the shop and the classroom.
Field service and dealer training. Manufacturers train the technicians who service their products, and those trainers are usually recruited from service work.
Program titles vary - training and development, instructional design, learning and development, instructional technology - and the coursework overlaps heavily. Compare course lists rather than titles.
Corporate training is not a licensed occupation. The recognized credentials are the CPTD and the earlier-career APTD, both from the Association for Talent Development, each pairing an examination with documented practice.
For instructional design roles specifically, a portfolio often carries more weight than any certificate. That is worth knowing early, because it means the work you produce during a program has value beyond the grade. Confirm current certification requirements with ATD directly.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
This field’s job titles are unusually inconsistent, which makes searching for work harder than it should be. The same role appears as:
Searching only for “trainer” misses most of these. So does searching only for “instructional designer.”
One further note on the field’s shape: a substantial share of the work is contract and freelance, particularly in instructional design. That is worth knowing early because it changes what a portfolio is for - it is not just a hiring aid, it is how independent work gets won.
The case for is the growth rate combined with the breadth of employer. Training roles exist inside almost any organization large enough to have a process worth teaching, which makes the field unusually portable across industries and metros.
The case against is that the generalist end of the market is crowded and the wage floor is low - a 10th percentile of $38,760 is the lowest of any degree-level occupation on this page. The difference between the floor and the $95,050 seventy-fifth percentile is largely specialization, and technical specialization is the kind this site’s readers are best positioned to offer.
Is college worth it covers the general tradeoff. Individual outcomes may vary.
The national median annual wage is $69,280 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $38,760 or less and the top 10 percent earn $123,250 or more, across employment of 458,300. Training and development managers, the tier above, have a median of $133,000.
It is one of the faster-growing occupations covered on this site. BLS projects a 10.8 percent change from 2024 to 2034, with about 43,900 openings per year on a base of 458,300 jobs (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
The CPTD and the earlier-career APTD, both from the Association for Talent Development. Each combines an examination with documented practice. Instructional design roles frequently ask for a portfolio of work instead of, or alongside, any certificate.
Yes, and there is a certain logic to it - a program teaching you to design online learning delivered as online learning. 417 of the 432 institutions awarding this degree report distance offerings (IPEDS 2024).
Instructional design is the build side: analyzing what people need to learn and designing the materials. Training and development is the wider function, including delivery, evaluation and program management. Most degrees in this area cover both, and job titles use the terms loosely.
Technical training is the corner of the field where it helps most. Safety training, equipment training, apprenticeship instruction and compliance training are all delivered by someone, and employers generally prefer that someone to have done the work. Individual outcomes may vary.
Same skill, different employer. CTE teaching sits in colleges and schools at a median of $63,820 with 0.7 percent projected change; corporate training sits inside employers at $69,280 with 10.8 percent projected change (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). The corporate side is the faster-growing of the two.
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.
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.
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
State pay, licensing and metro-level data for this degree. Wage and employment figures on every state page come from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Alabama * Alaska * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware * District of Columbia * Florida * Georgia * Hawaii * Idaho * Illinois * Indiana * Iowa * Kansas * Kentucky * Louisiana * Maine * Maryland * Massachusetts * Michigan * Minnesota * Mississippi * Montana * Nebraska * Nevada * New Jersey * New Mexico * New York * North Carolina * North Dakota * Ohio * Oklahoma * Oregon * Pennsylvania * Rhode Island * South Carolina * South Dakota * Tennessee * Texas * Utah * Vermont * Virginia * Washington * West Virginia * Wisconsin * Wyoming
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/.
