Academic Coach Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of an academic coach. Feel free to use our academic coach job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as an academic coach.
Who is An Academic Coach?
The human brain is indeed a very unique organ. Perhaps, this is the reason several people possess different capacities. In the end, several psychologists have grouped this capacity into several quotients, the most popular being the intelligence quotient(IQ).
Rather unfortunately, the IQ of one student is not the same IQ of another student and thus, academic performance tends to vary. While some have no issues in assimilating information from teachers and studying for tests, some find such tasks extremely difficult and somewhat impossible. These students would surely not be left on their own and if the need arises, will require the services of an academic coach.
This leads us to the primal question, who is an academic coach? An academic coach is a professional who assists students in examining academic concerns and helps them work out practical solutions to these concerns. The main concern of anyone working in this role is the academic excellence of the mentee. Moreover, as an academic coach, the principle of ‘age is just a number applies”. You can work with students of various ages, which makes the task rather challenging but lucrative at the same time.
While many are unofficial academic coaches and mentors, it is very lucrative for one to transform academic coaching into a career. If you wish to pursue a professional future in academic coaching, then this article is for you.
Academic Coach Job Description
Below are the academic coach job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write an academic coach job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
- Assisting students in the development of study techniques to enable them to assimilate information better.
- Assisting students in the organization of their workspace, reading timetables, study guides, etc.
- Providing feasible note-taking techniques for students to adopt.
- Assisting students in preparing for tests and examinations, to enable them to clear their papers with good grades.
- Helping students in the development of time management and stress management skills which serves as a major detriment to students when not applied properly.
- Inculcating appropriate reading habits into students to enable them to strive for academic success.
- Teaching students the principles of organizational thinking, which would go a long way in shaping the academic journey of any student.
- Obtaining appropriate materials for the students where necessary and providing connections for students to easily access these materials in case of need.
- Employing statistical methods in analyzing the academic growth of the student in a stipulated period.
- Helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses in their academic journey.
- Assisting students in the identification of priorities in their academic journey.
- Rendering assistance to students with processing college admission forms and other necessary documents.
- Restrategizing learning techniques for students in the event of the failure of techniques earlier employed.
- Providing a suitable environment for students to engage in their academic activities with little or no distractions.
Qualifications of an Academic Coach
Indeed, the work plan of an academic coach is rather enormous and very vital to the student, and the society at large. A simple error in the execution of your task may mar the life of someone forever, as well as have drastic effects on society.
To this end, it is not everyone that can qualify to be a professional academic coach. While it is true that some are unofficial academic coaches, the workload may eventually become too great to just be a ‘good Samaritan’. To get hired as a professional academic coach, there are certain qualifications you must possess before you can be considered. These qualifications have been outlined below:
- Academic Qualification
To be an academic coach, you possess at least a Bachelor’s Degree in Education or any course related to it. Moreover, if you must be an academic coach, you must gain experience in any field related to Education.
The university or college in question must be an accredited institution. If the institution is not accredited, you stand a lesser chance of being picked for a job as an academic coach. Therefore, when taking that bold step to obtain your degree, you must ensure that the college in question is accredited or you would have just wasted a few years for nothing.
The essence of this qualification is to ensure that you understand the fundamental principles in the student-teacher relationship, which must be acquired in a formal setting.
- Experience in Academic Counseling
It is a very important requirement that for you to be hired as an academic coach, you must have experience in counseling for a minimum of one year. In other words, you must have worked as an academic coach for a minimum of one year.
At this juncture, it is important to note that the experience you are meant to acquire can only come from internships. Thus, to attain this qualification, you must obtain experience through internships.
- Experience With Learning Management Software
In this digital age, there are several software programs designed for different purposes. This is what led to the advent of Electronic Learning, the use of digital devices to facilitate the learning process. To be qualified as an academic coach, you must have experience with software such as BigBlueButton, Learn Cube, WizIQ, Adobe Connect, and many others.
To be hired as an Academic coach, you must also know how to use software applications like Google Meet, Zoom Meeting, and other virtual meeting platforms, as these platforms have greatly influenced the academic process.
Essential Skills
As an academic coach, is educational qualification enough? The truth is, every academic coach must possess some vital skills to enable them to perform their jobs effectively. Without these skills, it would be almost impossible to communicate with students and assist them in ways that would be beneficial to them.
The skills are outlined as follows:
- Analytical Skills
The job revolves around the discovery of students’ problems and the provision of solutions to these academic challenges. However, you cannot provide such services to your students if you are not able to analyze their problems and come up with meaningful solutions for them.
To this end, you must possess critical reasoning and analytical skills. With these skills, the coach will be able to analyze student problems; enable the students to identify their challenges; and provide workable solutions for the students.
A coach without this skill may end up leading a student astray, which will be very detrimental to his academic life.
- Verbal Communication Skills
An academic coach spends most of his time talking with the student. Sometimes, he would have to talk with the caretakers or the teachers of the children as well. Moreover, the academic coach takes an advisory role in the students’ academic journey. Such responsibilities surely require the academic coach to have very strong verbal communication skills.
Without verbal communication skills, it would be nearly impossible for him to assist the students as he has no channel of knowing the challenges of the students. Moreover, he would be unable to render advice when needed, which is very unhealthy for the student. Thus, verbal communication skills are a must for an academic coach.
- Written Communication Skills
The majority of a student’s academic work is done on paper. Notes are taken on paper and tests are written on paper as well. As many students have issues with note-taking and test writing, it is up to academic coaches to provide assistance to them. However, these academic coaches will be unable to provide such assistance if they have issues with their writing skills.
Moreover, most applications and recommendations to higher institutions are done on paper. Therefore, if the academic coach has issues with writing, it would be extremely difficult to communicate with these institutions. Thus, written communication skills are highly essential.
- Emotional Intelligence Skills
Even with academic coaches, some students find it difficult to excel in their studies. Thus, they may meet several setbacks and even cause a lot of stress to their academic coaches, who tale extra pains to figure out ways to assist them.
To this end, academic coaches must develop strong emotional intelligence skills to allow them to manage the academic lives of students properly. Without these skills, it will be difficult for the academic coach to accommodate the student or even assist them in their academic challenges.
- Organizational and Time Management Skills
It is necessary that to teach students the art of time management and organizational management, the academic coach must possess these skills. The art of stress management is also an important skill for the academic coach to possess.
How to Become an Academic Coach
To become a successful academic coach, it is first important to be academically qualified. First of all, you must obtain a bachelor’s degree in Education or any other related course. You stand a higher chance of being hired if you strive to obtain a Master’s Degree as well.
However, you can become an academic coach with just a high school degree, which is the least qualification to work in this capacity. Other academic qualifications you can obtain are High School Diploma Degrees and Associate Degrees.
The next step you must take is to register in internship programs. These programs will expose you to students and help build your resume, as well as your experience level. Many academic coaches do not perform because they lack experience in relating with students, which would end up being detrimental to the coach and the student. However, this shortcoming can be resolved through an internship program.
You stand a higher chance of becoming an academic coach if you are certified. The organization responsible for the certification of academic coaches is the National Tutoring Association. There are two coaching tracks provided by this association. The first track is the Basic Coaching Track, which is only accessible to those with Associate Degrees. The second track is the Advanced Coaching Track, which is accessible to those with a Bachelor’s Degree.
When all these steps are taken, the next step you must take is to apply for jobs. Always endeavor to take your first job seriously as your experience there will have a positive impact on your resume.
Where to Work
As an academic coach, the educational field is the best environment to function. As an academic coach, you may choose to work as a freelancer from home. You may also choose to partner up with parents who home-school their children.
Moreover, you may choose to work in public or private schools. Some schools may employ you as a guidance counselor. However, if you choose not to be a guidance counselor, you may have to find a school with an opening as an academic coach.
You can also work in a high school or a tertiary institution. Many academic coaches find it preferable to work in secondary institutions as they find relating with young ones a lot easier.
Academic Coach Salary Scale
The truth is that academic coaches tend to earn various amounts and it is rather difficult to decipher their exact earnings. Depending on the institution they work for, some academic coaches tend to earn more than other academic coaches.
Despite this lack of consensus, the typical salary scale of an academic coach ranges from $40,000 to $50,000. It is important to note that this salary scale applies to the earnings of an academic coach in a year.
The average amount of earnings an academic coach can make in an hour is $20. In a year, you can make more than $40,000
Thus, working as an academic coach is a highly lucrative job opportunity. However, despite the salaries, it is important to note that this job opportunity is very essential to society. To this end, academic coaches are in high demand.
Before applying for a job as an academic coach, it is important that you consider the lives of the students you will be imparting. As an academic coach, you must possess a drive to help students succeed. Many academic coaches who lack this drive end up being unable to perform their duties optimally.
