Find where the job breaks down
Before you plan a lesson, ask staff and their manager where the job goes wrong.
Career profile
Training and Development Specialist
Training specialists teach employees how to do their jobs and check whether the lessons worked.
Someone gets a tricky task right without another explanation, which can be the reward. Getting there means reshaping that task into something workers can rehearse.
A day in the life
Turn a procedure into a checklist
Write the steps as a checklist or handout that workers can keep beside them while practicing.
Demonstrate, then check understanding
Show the task first, then test understanding, and rephrase or use a visual when someone seems confused.
Log who finished training
Record each worker's training in course-tracking software, a program that hands out courses and logs who finished them.
Rework a lesson that missed
When training results show one error coming back, rework the practice activity or explanation, then recheck.
Quick facts
Usually a bachelor's degree
United States
$69,280 median
United States · May 2025
10.8% projected growth
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Usually a bachelor's degreeRelated work experience usually matters, too.
Pay
$69,280 medianAnnual national wage for training and development specialists; equivalent to $33.31 an hour.
Outlook
10.8% projected growthNational employment growth over the decade; local hiring can differ.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You like finding another way to explain something when the first attempt fails.
- You can give useful feedback without making someone feel foolish.
- You enjoy speaking to groups and listening closely to individuals.
Things to weigh
- You need patience and energy for questions, demonstrations, and feedback—even when you have explained the task before.
- Class preparation shares your time with records, schedules, and changing deadlines.
Where AI may help
Course-building software such as Articulate uses artificial intelligence (AI) to draft lessons and quiz questions from source material. You review and revise the draft.
What people still lead
You still watch for confusion, ask follow-up questions, and decide when a learner needs a different explanation.
What we can’t predict yet
How much drafting becomes automated will depend on the material and the review it needs. A quick first draft may still take substantial checking before employees can use it.
Pay in context
Earnings
These national figures cover training and development specialists across industries, not just corporate classroom trainers.
The middle and the spread
The median was $69,280 a year, or $33.31 an hour. The 10th-percentile wage was $38,760 and the 90th-percentile wage was $123,250. Those are positions in the wage distribution, not starting and senior salaries.
Industry makes a difference
Annual medians were $82,110 in professional, scientific, and technical services and $61,100 in administrative and support services.
Openings include replacement hiring
About 46,000 openings are projected annually, on average, alongside 10.8% employment growth over the decade. Openings include workers leaving the occupation, not only newly created jobs.
Getting started
Combine college with related experience
- What the route involves
- Earn a bachelor's degree in a field such as business, education, or communications, and gain related training or teaching experience.
- What it can lead to
- This matches the typical education-and-experience background employers seek.
Build from industry experience
- What the route involves
- Develop and deliver employee training while building knowledge of an industry's work.
- What it can lead to
- Some employers accept relevant experience in place of a bachelor's degree.
- What to check
- That experience may need to be extensive and specific to the employer's industry.
Choose a route that builds both teaching skill and knowledge of workplace tasks.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get established
Learn your employer's workflows, teach existing sessions, and get comfortable maintaining course assignments and completion records.
Improve a whole course
Connect employee needs to a lesson, evaluate the results, and revise what did not work.
Move toward management
With several years of experience, you may advance to training and development manager.
Where you can work
Corporate operations office
In an office training team, you can teach company workflows, coordinate with human resources and information technology staff, and spend substantial time at a computer updating courses and records.
- Indoors
- Office
Sort center
At Amazon sort centers, trainers work with operations managers and associates, using checklists and production results to improve instruction. Nights or weekends and time standing or walking can be part of the job.
- Indoors
- Shift work
- Physical demands
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
Teach a friend how to sort a small spreadsheet of made-up items. Ask what they already know, write a short guide, and let them try without hints. Revise the step that confused them. Notice whether you enjoy figuring out why an explanation did not land.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Training and Development Specialists — Occupational Outlook Handbook. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Wages: Training and Development Specialists. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational projections and worker characteristics, 2025–35. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine. 13-1151.00 — Training and Development Specialists. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Amazon. Learning Trainer — Job ID 10466863. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- MegaCorp. Corporate Training Specialist. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Articulate. Build better courses faster with Articulate 360 AI. Accessed 2026-10-03.