Best degree programs for Dispatchers, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 4 schools train Dispatchers. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $50,340 median wage, 202,810 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 4 schools train dispatchers, graduating 314 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician. The job pays a median of $50,340 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About dispatchers
Schedule and dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles for conveyance of materials, freight, or passengers, or for normal installation, service, or emergency repairs rendered outside the place of business. Duties may include using radio, telephone, or computer to transmit assignments and compiling statistics and reports on work progress.
A dispatcher is a communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. Emergency organizations including police departments, fire departments, and emergency medical services departments as well as civilian organizations such as motorcycle couriers, taxicab providers, trucking companies, railroads, bus systems, and public utility companies, use dispatchers to relay information, direct personnel, and coordinate their operations.
Read more on Wikipedia →Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.0410 | 314 | 100.0% | 4 | $25,993 | $9,500 |
Top 4 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bellevue University Bellevue, NE Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 195 | Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician | 33% | $29,230 | — |
| 2 | Diversified Vocational College Los Angeles, CA Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 117 | Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician | 96% | $21,444 | — |
| 3 | Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician | 47% | — | 91% |
| 4 | New Professions Technical Institute Miami, FL Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician | 100% | $39,944 | — |
What dispatchers earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraskalimited | $53,880 | 1,500 | 1.12× | 1 | 195 |
| Californialimited | $52,350 | 23,970 | 1.01× | 1 | 117 |
| Floridalimited | $45,880 | 12,550 | 0.97× | 1 | 1 |
| Michiganlimited | $49,490 | 5,390 | 0.94× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Schedule or dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles to appropriate locations, according to customer requests, specifications, or needs, using radios or telephones.
- Prepare daily work and run schedules.
- Confer with customers or supervising personnel to address questions, problems, or requests for service or equipment.
- Relay work orders, messages, or information to or from work crews, supervisors, or field inspectors, using telephones or two-way radios.
- Receive or prepare work orders.
- Record and maintain files or records of customer requests, work or services performed, charges, expenses, inventory, or other dispatch information.
- Arrange for necessary repairs to restore service and schedules.
- Monitor personnel or equipment locations and utilization to coordinate service and schedules.
Skills
- Active Listening4.0
- Speaking4.0
- Monitoring3.9
- Reading Comprehension3.8
- Writing3.1
- Critical Thinking3.1
- Active Learning3.0
- Learning Strategies2.8
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service4.3
- Public Safety and Security4.0
- Administration and Management3.9
- Administrative3.7
- English Language3.5
- Transportation3.5
Abilities
- Speech Recognition4.0
- Oral Expression4.0
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Speech Clarity4.0
- Near Vision3.8
- Deductive Reasoning3.8
Core activities
- Getting Information4.7
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events4.3
- Working with Computers4.1
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems3.9
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates3.9
- Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others3.9
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Dispatcher
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Dispatchers1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 52.0410Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Dispatcher?+
High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician, which awarded 314 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Dispatcher?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Operations Support and Assistant Services. Together they graduate about 314 people a year.
How much do dispatchers earn?+
The median is $50,340 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $36,030 at the 10th percentile to $78,140 at the 90th. 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 dispatchers growing?+
BLS projects a -0.9% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 18,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
4 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 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 dispatchers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records City Dispatcher, Taxi Dispatcher, Train Dispatcher, Dispatcher (Dispatch) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-5032.
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
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