Best Training programs in California, ranked by enrollment
Design or conduct work-related training and development programs to improve individual skills or organizational performance.
42 schools in California run programs that feed this job, graduating 1,264 people a year. The job pays a median of $75,790 in California across about 46,530 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in California that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
6 programs in California that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in California (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own California page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.1001In California → | 531 | 42.0% | 15 | $49,084 | $26,536 |
| 2 | CIP 13.0501In California → | 427 | 33.8% | 21 | $40,786 | $33,629 |
| 3 | CIP 42.2804In California → | 260 | 20.6% | 14 | $33,805 | $27,000 |
| 4 | CIP 52.1005In California → | 28 | 2.2% | 3 | $49,084 | $26,536 |
| 5 | CIP 52.1006In California → | 11 | 0.9% | 2 | $49,084 | $26,536 |
| 6 | CIP 09.0901In California → | 7 | 0.6% | 1 | $39,658 | $24,500 |
Top 25 schools in California
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 3 of the 42 schools in this state.
All 42 schools in California
Every school in California with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Southern California | Los Angeles | Private not-for-profit | 174 | 1 |
| California State University - Fullerton | Fullerton | Public | 114 | 1 |
| National University | San Diego | Private not-for-profit | 102 | 2 |
| Touro University Worldwide | Los Alamitos | Private not-for-profit | 78 | 2 |
| The Chicago School at Los Angeles | Los Angeles | Private not-for-profit | 74 | 2 |
| Golden Gate University | San Francisco | Private not-for-profit | 67 | 2 |
| San Joaquin Valley College - Visalia | Visalia | Private for-profit | 64 | 1 |
| Pepperdine University | Malibu | Private not-for-profit | 61 | 4 |
| Foothill College | Los Altos Hills | Public | 58 | 1 |
| Northcentral University | San Diego | Private not-for-profit | 51 | 2 |
| Concordia University - Irvine | Irvine | Private not-for-profit | 46 | 2 |
| University of San Diego | San Diego | Private not-for-profit | 41 | 1 |
| California State University - East Bay | Hayward | Public | 38 | 1 |
| Claremont Lincoln University | Claremont | Private not-for-profit | 33 | 1 |
| California State University - Los Angeles | Los Angeles | Public | 32 | 1 |
What training and development specialists earn in California
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $69,280. California pays above the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in California
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Training and Development Specialists page.
How to become a Training
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in California
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 7 majors mapped to Training and Development Specialists7 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 09.0901Organizational Communication, General
- 13.0501Educational/Instructional Technology
- 13.1201Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching
- 42.2804Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- 52.1001Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General
- 52.1005Human Resources Development
- 52.1006Executive/Career Coaching
Common questions
Answers for people weighing training and development specialists programs in California.
What degree do you need to become a Training?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General, which awarded 531 degrees in California in 2024-25, 42.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Training?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 6 programs to this occupation. The largest are Human Resources Management and Services, Educational/Instructional Media Design, Clinical, Public Relations. Together they graduate about 1,264 people a year in California.
How much do training and development specialists earn in California?+
The median is $75,790 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 9.4% above the U.S. median of $69,280. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for training and development specialists growing?+
BLS projects a +10.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 43,900 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in California?+
42 institutions in California reported graduates from at least one of the 6 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do training and development specialists work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Corporate Trainer, Training Specialist, Job Training Specialist, Learning and Development Specialist (L and D Specialist) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 13-1151.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
Explore every U.S. college in one conversation
Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card