How To Become An Academic Coach: What It Is and Career Path

What is an academic coach and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

You may think of coaches as people that only work with athletes, usually while wearing tracksuits and blowing a whistle. However, developing good academic habits is also a skill that takes practice and dedication. As an academic coach, you would help students learn how to flex their academic muscles.

If you were working as an academic coach, you could work with students of all ages. Your job would be different from that of a tutor. Tutors help students memorize specific facts or skills, but as an academic coach, you would help students develop techniques for academic success. You could help a student learn time management skills, organize their workspace, or develop a plan to meet their academic goals.

Skills like organizational thinking are not intuitive for everyone, and some students need extra practice with them. You would make a great academic coach if you believe that all students have the potential to succeed; some just need a little help to meet that potential.

ScoreAcademic CoachUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,812

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.0

Growth Rate 20%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.38%

Black or African American 8.68%

Hispanic or Latino 12.96%

Unknown 6.30%

White 66.46%

Gender

female 67.32%

male 32.68%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress Level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.4

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.3

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an academic coach

Explore academic coach education requirements

Most common academic coach degrees

Bachelor's

67.1 %

Master's

19.4 %

Associate

7.6 %

Start to develop specific academic coach skills

Skills	Percentages
Instructional Support	21.02%
Course Content	19.03%
Math	9.16%
Mathematics	5.66%
Academic Support	5.28%

Complete relevant academic coach training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New academic coaches learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an academic coach based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real academic coach resumes.

Research academic coach duties and responsibilities

Mentore and help students achieve a successful leadership experience through community volunteering.
Utilize training in medical English to facilitate preparation of study and achieve require educational standards necessary to successfully complete course.
Formulate academic programs design to improve cognition in target areas of language arts and mathematics.
Require knowledge of word, PowerPoint, and excel.

Prepare your academic coach resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your academic coach resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an academic coach resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Academic Coach Resume templates

Build a professional Academic Coach resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Academic Coach resume.

Apply for academic coach jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an academic coach job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams