Social Work Teachers build instructing, complex problem solving and social perceptiveness skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Sociologists (85%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sociologists | 85% | $106,030 | +37% | None |
| 2 | Instructional Coordinators | 85% | $77,440 | 0% | None |
| 3 | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 85% | $74,260 | −4% | None |
| 4 | Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors | 83% | $64,330 | −17% | None |
| 5 | Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 82% | $72,040 | −7% | None |
| 6 | Marriage and Family Therapists | 81% | $66,940 | −14% | None |
| 7 | Healthcare Social Workers | 80% | $67,880 | −12% | None |
| 8 | Speech-Language Pathologists | 79% | $97,870 | +26% | None |
| 9 | Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses | 79% | $97,550Pay for the broader BLS group “Registered Nurses” | Not compared | None |
| 10 | Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 77% | $63,970 | −18% | None |
Compared with Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary, median $77,570. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as social work teachers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
85% skill match · $106,030 · +37% pay
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
85% skill match · $77,440 · 0% pay
Management of Financial Resources · Management of Material Resources · Troubleshooting
85% skill match · $74,260 · −4% pay
Time Management · Service Orientation · Operations Monitoring
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Sociologists (85% skill match, median $106,030), Instructional Coordinators (85% skill match, median $77,440) and Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (85% skill match, median $74,260), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 7 pay more than social work teachers at the median. The biggest increases: Industrial-Organizational Psychologists (+150%, $193,950), Political Scientists (+83%, $142,080) and Sociologists (+37%, $106,030).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.