Educational Support
What Is Educational Support?
All educational institutions–from K-12 schools, to universities, to training institutes—have numerous educational support personnel who are critical to the success of the school. Without them the physical school building could not function for very long, the grades would not be recorded, the parking lots wouldn’t be cleared of snow, the students would not get textbooks, lunch wouldn’t be served, the community wouldn’t be informed about happenings, the students wouldn’t be advised, school buses wouldn’t run, and on, and on, and on.
Most educational support employees serve in one of the following work groups: clerical services, maintenance, transportation, technical services, security, skilled trades, health services, and teacher assistants. So, no matter what your skills and proficiency level are, there’s probably a position for you in one of these Educational Support areas. Why would you want to work in education if you don’t want to be a teacher or manager? Because many people would say that working in a school environment is rewarding while offering a working life that may be hard to find in a business organization. Oftentimes work hours end earlier in the day, allowing you a longer evening to do other things. You may have a vacation schedule similar to what you had in school or at least have more flexibility than many other jobs have. Plus, you may have better than average fringe benefits—sick days, pension plan, tuition reimbursement, etc.—than jobs outside of education. More and more schools have found that they need to pay something close to the industry standard to be able to hire good people for their support positions.
So, no, you may not get rich with an educational support position; but you’ll be working around nice people who probably support a mission of helping little kids and grown-ups to learn and grow as individuals.