---
title: "Self-Enrichment Teacher"
description: "Teach or instruct individuals or groups for the primary purpose of self-enrichment or recreation, rather than for an occupational objective, educational…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/self-enrichment-teacher"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Self-Enrichment Teacher

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-3021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-3021.00

Teach or instruct individuals or groups for the primary purpose of self-enrichment or recreation, rather than for an occupational objective, educational attainment, competition, or fitness.

Also advertised as: Art Teacher; Dance Instructor; Dance Teacher; Driving Instructor; Flight Instructor; Instructor; Martial Arts Instructor; Music Instructor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $46,800 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.50/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $30,050 to $92,840, with the middle half between $36,380 and $63,210
- **Total US employment:** 332,110
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 50,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 51/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 332,110 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $30,050 |
| 25th | $36,380 |
| 50th (median) | $46,800 |
| 75th | $63,210 |
| 90th | $92,840 |
| Mean (average) | $54,740 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $66,430 | $60,445 | 600 |
| NH | $59,880 | $57,486 | 1,820 |
| NY | $57,790 | $53,548 | 31,120 |
| CT | $55,240 | $53,315 | 5,080 |
| OR | $53,790 | $52,041 | 5,580 |
| NJ | $53,780 | $49,428 | 13,380 |
| VT | $53,190 | $54,299 | 1,190 |
| GA | $52,320 | $54,334 | 10,030 |
| HI | $51,960 | $47,257 | 1,730 |
| MD | $51,630 | $49,191 | 6,570 |
| SD | $49,720 | $56,126 | 140 |
| CA | $49,570 | $44,771 | 60,260 |
| MA | $49,430 | $46,739 | 11,950 |
| VA | $49,160 | $48,623 | 8,730 |
| WA | $48,020 | $44,873 | 12,890 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/self-enrichment-teacher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/self-enrichment-teacher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 419,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 433,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 14,600 jobs, or +3.5%. About as fast as average: 3.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 50,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 34.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 18.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 18.1% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 13.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 13.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.8% |

## What the work involves

- Monitor students' performance to make suggestions for improvement and to ensure that they satisfy course standards, training requirements, and objectives.
- Instruct students individually and in groups, using various teaching methods, such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
- Observe students to determine qualifications, limitations, abilities, interests, and other individual characteristics.
- Prepare students for further development by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Review instructional content, methods, and student evaluations to assess strengths and weaknesses, and to develop recommendations for course revision, development, or elimination.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to students.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Artistic (A), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| A — Artistic | 4.18 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.20 |
| C — Conventional | 3.08 |
| I — Investigative | 2.97 |
| R — Realistic | 2.51 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 80.1 |
| ENFP | 76.7 |
| ESFP | 76.5 |
| ESFJ | 70.4 |
| INFJ | 65.2 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ENFP, ESFP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040
- [Elementary School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher) — median $63,970
- [Tutor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tutor) — median $43,350
- [Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adult-basic-education-adult-secondary-education-and-english-as-a-second-language-instructor) — median $61,540
- [Middle School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/middle-school-teacher) — median $64,370
- [Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-kindergarten) — median $67,170
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Art, Drama, and Music Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/art-drama-and-music-teacher-postsecondary) — median $78,620
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [Teaching Assistant, Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-special-education) — median $37,010

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/self-enrichment-teacher