West Virginia·Business and Financial Operations Occupations·SOC 13-1151

Best Training programs in West Virginia, ranked by enrollment

Design or conduct work-related training and development programs to improve individual skills or organizational performance.

6 schools in West Virginia run programs that feed this job, graduating 639 people a year. The job pays a median of $64,960 in West Virginia across about 1,710 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledCorporate TrainerTraining SpecialistJob Training SpecialistLearning and Development Specialist (L and D Specialist)TrainerLabor TrainerSales TrainerSkills Trainer
Graduates / yr
639
in West Virginia
Median pay · West Virginia
$64,960
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,710
people employed
Schools
6
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
49%
across those schools
Median net price
$17,325
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in West Virginia that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

5 programs in West Virginia that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in West Virginia (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 West Virginia page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1582
91.1%
4$49,084$26,536
231
4.9%
2$49,084$26,536
317
2.7%
2$40,786$33,629
47
1.1%
1$49,084$26,536
52
0.3%
1$39,658$24,500

Top 6 schools in West Virginia

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 6 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1American Public University System
Charles Town, WV Private for-profit · 4 feeder programs
559Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General57%$10,199
2West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV Public · 2 feeder programs
37Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General65%89%
3University of Charleston
Charleston, WV Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
23Executive/Career Coaching46%$21,93962%
4West Virginia Junior College - Morgantown
Morgantown, WV Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
17Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General71%$19,134
5West Virginia Wesleyan College
Buckhannon, WV Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
2Organizational Communication, General57%$17,32593%
6Strayer University - West Virginia
Scott Depot, WV Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
1Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General0%$16,943

All 6 schools in West Virginia

Every school in West Virginia 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.

All schools in West Virginia that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
American Public University SystemCharles TownPrivate for-profit5594
West Virginia UniversityMorgantownPublic372
University of CharlestonCharlestonPrivate not-for-profit231
West Virginia Junior College - MorgantownMorgantownPrivate for-profit171
West Virginia Wesleyan CollegeBuckhannonPrivate not-for-profit21
Strayer University - West VirginiaScott DepotPrivate for-profit11

What training and development specialists earn in West Virginia

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in West Virginia
$64,960
Mean annual
$70,290
Jobs in state
1,710
What the range looks like
10th pct$39,970Median$64,96090th pct$101,080
Versus the national median
-6.2%

U.S. median $69,280. West Virginia pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.83×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in West Virginia

Morgantown, WV
$69,560median
160 jobs
Parkersburg-Vienna, WV
$79,290median
70 jobs
Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH
$76,770median
90 jobs
Charleston, WV
$63,560median
330 jobs
Beckley, WV
$55,600median
80 jobs
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
$58,750median
290 jobs
Wheeling, WV-OH
$52,830median
130 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+10.8%
Much faster than average
Openings per year
43,900
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
48,700
452,300 → 501,000
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

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

SpeakingLearning StrategiesActive ListeningReading ComprehensionWritingCritical Thinking

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in West Virginia

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 West Virginia.

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 582 degrees in West Virginia in 2024-25, 91.1% 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 5 programs to this occupation. The largest are Human Resources Management and Services, Educational/Instructional Media Design, Public Relations. Together they graduate about 639 people a year in West Virginia.

How much do training and development specialists earn in West Virginia?+

The median is $64,960 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 6.2% below 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 West Virginia?+

6 institutions in West Virginia reported graduates from at least one of the 5 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.

Training and Development Specialists in other statesUtahArizonaTexasGeorgiaNew HampshireMinnesotaNew YorkIndiana

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 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected 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 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, 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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