How to become an educational support assistant
Official title: Educational support assistants
Also called: Sen assistant, Support worker, Support assistant, Teacher assistant, Welfare assistant, Learning assistant, Teaching assistant, Classroom assistant, Education assistant, Teacher's assistant, Integration assistant, Non-teaching assistant
Educational support assistants work with teachers to provide one-to-one support for children with particular learning needs.
Main tasks
- Supports schoolwork under teacher’s supervision
- Helps child understand instruction through a variety of means and encourages self-confidence and independence
- Identifies signs of distress and offers reassurance
- Implements care programmes, as appropriate
- Helps and encourages child to communicate
- Attends to child’s physical needs
- Provides feedback to teachers and completes and maintains records
How to become one
Academic qualifications may be required by some employers, although entry is possible with relevant experience alone. A DBS check is mandatory.
Ways in
- University: Psychology degrees, Offered by 26 universities in the UK
- University: Education & Teaching degrees, Offered by 25 universities in the UK
Pay · Outlook
- Median full-time pay: £21,448 a year The middle half earn £18,465 to £25,501.
- About 171,400 people work in this job now, and about 187,900 are projected by 2035. (+9.6%)
Related jobs
- Early education and childcare assistants
- Teaching assistants
- Childminders
- Nannies and au pairs
- Playworkers
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Questions people ask
How do I become an educational support assistant?
Academic qualifications may be required by some employers, although entry is possible with relevant experience alone. A DBS check is mandatory.
How much does an educational support assistant earn in the UK?
Median full-time pay is £21,448 a year (Office for National Statistics). The middle half earn £18,465 to £25,501.
Is an educational support assistant a growing career in the UK?
Yes. Employment is projected to grow 10% by 2035, from about 171,400 to about 187,900 people (Department for Education).
Do you need a degree to become an educational support assistant?
Not always. 36% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Ways in include: Psychology degrees; Education & Teaching degrees.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Updated 2026-10-03
Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.