Home Health Aide

Types of Degrees Home Health Aide Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many home health aide/home attendant graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	948
Undergraduate Certificate	92
Associate Degree	1

What Home Health Aide Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to home health aide and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Home Health Aide Majors

Home Health Aide majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for Home Health Aide Majors

A major in home health aide prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Abilities for Home Health Aide Majors

A major in home health aide will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Home Health Aide Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with home health aide:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Home Health Aides	47.3%	$24,200
Personal Care Aides	38.6%	$24,020

How Much Do Home Health Aide Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Home Health Aide majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $25,090 to $25,330 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Home Health Aide

Some degrees associated with home health aide may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to home health aide have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	7.9%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	57.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	13.6%
Some College Courses	11.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	4.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	0.6%
Master’s Degree	2.8%

Online Home Health Aide Programs

In 2020-2021, 64 schools offered a home health aide program of some type. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	10	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	2	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Home Health Aide Worth It?

The median salary for a home health aide grad is $25,090 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Majors Related to Home Health Aide

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to home health aide.

Major	Number of Grads
Medication Aide	664
Health Aide	430
Rehabilitation Aide	121
Other Health Aides/Attendants/Orderlies	114
Physical Therapy Technician/Aide	4

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.