A human development and family studies degree is an academic certification that signifies your qualification in handling individuals and families issues in society, community and cultural setting. This course program is centered towards understanding human relationships and their quality of life across diverse backgrounds. If you’ve just graduated with a human development degree or you are thinking or pursuing it, you should know that there are numerous career paths waiting for you.
The education and knowledge gained during your course period equip you to work in various environments such as hospitals, hospice, children centers, community centers among others. In addition, as a professional in this study, you can efficiently operate in a school setting, helping children through their development stage. Being a human development and family studies professional, you’ll most likely find yourself working with children, but the demands of an aging population open up other job opportunities. This means that additional workforce will be needed to cope up with increasing number of seniors. If you have a passion to serve others, regardless of their age, race and religion, a career in human development may be just what you need.
Although careers vary, the following categories serve as the basis for a human development and family studies degree.
Psychology and counseling
If you’ve dreamed of working a psychologist, counselor or a social worker, you are on the right track since there are a variety of job options in this lines of work. A degree in human development and family studies will prepare you for the initial job positions. Some of the common careers available in this studies include rehabilitation counselor, institution psychologist, family, children, and youth counselor. Adding a psychology degree can also complement your human development degree and steer you to more professional level work.
Education
Interested in teaching and education careers? Well, you have numerous work options such as youth workers, health educators, elementary, high school or adult literacy teachers.
Volunteer and advocacy
Graduates interested in nonprofit work have a wide selection of jobs both locally and globally. Local non-governmental agencies are always looking for individuals with rich knowledge in human diversity and those who are able to combine management and administrative skills in finding solutions to social problems.
Other possible job opportunities for a human development and family studies degree graduate are health related careers such as paramedical, child care, public health administrators and occupational therapists. Studies indicate the holder’s of a bachelor’s degree has an average initial salary of $45,000. Therefore, following the path of human development professional can certainly be a dream career.
