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EducationTop JobColorado Talent Pipeline Report-aligned occupation with strong annual openings, growth, and wage signals.

Higher Education Faculty

Teach courses pertaining to education, such as advising, curriculum, guidance, instruction, work-based learning experiences, teacher education, child development, clinical practice, and educational theory with a diversity/equity/social justice lens. Includes teachers primarily engaged in teaching and helping students, those with a combination of teaching and research, coaches, consultants to learning settings, and fieldwork supervisors and managers (including partnership development with programs).

Annual openings

233

Median wage

$66,870

Typical education

A minimum of a Master’s degree is usually required.

Growth 2024–2034

+8%

Median wage source: Colorado BLS OEWS (2025).

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Career requirements

What does this career require?

Explore education, required qualifications, voluntary credentials and employer preferences for this role. Check the details to see which apply.

Typical education

A minimum of a Master’s degree is usually required.

Credential requirement

Credential requirements not reported

Credential detail

There are often no additional credentials required for this job. The detail for credentials for CTE faculty is available here.

Experience detail

A minimum of 5 years of teaching and/or administration experience is expected.

Employer competency information

  • ● Instruction & Customer Service - Know and demonstrate knowledge of the content being taught, making the instruction and content relevant to students while fostering a positive learning environment and adjusting instructional approaches as needed ● Communication - Be perceptive and responsive listeners, able to communicate with students in a variety of ways; help students to articulate their thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively ● Strategic Planning & Organizing - Able to develop short-term and long-term lesson plans, monitoring and modifying those plans as needed to enhance learning in real-time ● Administration & Management - Able to manage interaction in the classroom and meet learning objectives across a semester ● Reading - Able to develop reading skills in students while also utilizing these skills to facilitate their own lifelong learning
For additional faculty opportunities, please explore the Higher Education Faculty occupation in the Education Postsecondary pathway.

Is this work a fit?

What the work actually feels like

How people in this career tend to spend their time, the interests it draws on, and a look at a typical day.

Work style

The type of work can vary by job and employer.

  • With childrenYes
  • On a computerYes
  • OutdoorsNo
  • With your handsNo

Interests it draws on

  • Education
  • Teaching

Automation exposure

Low exposure

Tasks here lean on judgement and people skills that are hard to automate.

A typical day

  1. Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
  2. Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
  3. Supervise students' fieldwork, internship, and research work.
  4. Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
  5. Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
  6. Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.

Also includes

Specializations that share this occupation’s labor-market data.

  • Higher Education Faculty
  • Higher Education Faculty
  • Education and Library Science Faculty
  • Education Faculty
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