Training and Development Specialist Career Assessment
Teaching adults the skills their job needs
Welcome
Training and development specialists teach adults at work. They figure out what people need to learn, build the lessons, deliver them in a classroom or online, and check whether the training actually worked.
This is teaching, but the students are grown adults with jobs. You will explore what the work is really like and whether it fits you.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Training and Development Specialist?
A training and development specialist builds and delivers workplace training. The first step is finding out what people are getting wrong or cannot do yet. Then you design the lesson, which may be a class, a written guide, or an online course. Building online courses is called instructional design. Companies deliver many of those courses through software called a learning management system, or LMS, which tracks who finished what.
The Reality: Here is the part people miss: this is teaching adults, not children, and adults will not sit still for training they think is a waste of time. You have to earn attention in the first five minutes. And in most workplaces, knowing the subject matters more than having a training degree. Hospitals hire nurses to train nurses. Plants hire experienced operators to train operators. If you already know a job well, that is your way in. Many postings still ask for a bachelor's degree, but the subject matter expert route is real and common.
Your Responsibilities:
- Find out what skills people are missing
- Design lessons, guides, and online courses
- Teach classes to groups of adult workers
- Build and load courses into a learning management system
- Make training materials clear and easy to follow
- Test whether people actually learned it
- Update training when rules or equipment change
- Keep records of who completed which training
You are the reason a worker can do the job safely and well instead of guessing.
A Day in the Life
8:00 AM — Set up the training room. Check that the projector and laptop work.
8:30 AM — Teach a two-hour class on the new safety procedure to 14 workers.
10:30 AM — Answer follow-up questions and collect the sign-in sheet.
11:00 AM — Meet a supervisor who says new hires keep making the same mistake.
12:00 PM — Lunch.
12:45 PM — Build an online module about that mistake. Write the script and the quiz.
2:30 PM — Load the module into the learning management system and test it yourself.
4:00 PM — Pull a report on who still has not finished last month's required training.
A real mix: standing and teaching some hours, building materials at a desk the rest.
Training in North Dakota
Many jobs ask for a bachelor's degree, but knowing the subject often matters more. There is no license. Employers hire two kinds of people for this work: someone with a training or education background, and someone who is excellent at the job and can teach it. The second route is how most people in North Dakota get in. A certificate in instructional design adds the piece that subject experts usually lack.
Training Pathways:
- Subject expert route (start now): Get very good at a job you already do, then volunteer to train new hires. Ask to write the procedure. This is how most workplace trainers start, and a degree in that field counts more than a training degree.
- Bachelor's degree (4 years): Business, human resource management, communication, or education. This is what many postings ask for, and it opens the corporate training jobs.
- Add instructional design (about 1 year): A graduate certificate in instructional design and technology teaches you to build online courses and use a learning management system. It stacks onto whatever degree you already have.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Instructional Design and Technology graduate certificate, 12 credits, about 1 year, online or on campus, with a Corporate Training and Performance track. UND says it is built for people working as an instructional designer without a degree who want the credential, and that the certificate credits transfer into the master's program — und.edu
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Instructional Design and Technology, M.S. and M.Ed., online or on campus, with live online classes by video conference — und.edu
- Valley City State University (Valley City) — Business Administration, Human Resource & Management Concentration, 120 credits, which includes Corporate Training (COMM 304) and lists Corporate Trainer as a career path — catalog.vcsu.edu
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Human Resource Management, B.B.A., 120 credits, on campus or online. UND says the program covers training and development along with staffing and compensation — und.edu
- Minot State University (Minot) — Management, B.S., 120 credits, on campus or online, with a Human Resources Management concentration — minotstateu.edu
- TrainND — the North Dakota University System's non-degree workforce training arm, with four regional centers at Williston State College, Lake Region State College, North Dakota State College of Science, and Bismarck State College. It delivers leadership, management, and soft skills training on site at businesses. A good place to see this work done and to meet people who do it — trainnd.org
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Management, AAS, 60 to 61 credits, a two-year start that transfers toward a bachelor's — catalog.bismarckstate.edu
Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. You must be able to stand in front of a group and talk. You need clear writing and comfort with computers, because much of the work is building materials on a screen.
Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.
Certification & Licensing
No license is required. ATD offers the two credentials employers know. ATD is the Association for Talent Development, the professional group for workplace training. Both of its credentials require years of hands-on training work with adult learners, so you earn them after you are already doing the job, not before.
Credentials You Might Get:
- APTD (ATD) — Associate Professional in Talent Development. You need at least three years of work experience plus at least 28 hours of professional development completed within the last three years. ATD defines the experience as hands-on, on-the-job work in talent development with adult learners (td.org)
- APTD alternate route — three years of experience plus an ATD Master Series Designation earned within the last three years, with no separate professional development hours required (td.org)
- CPTD (ATD) — Certified Professional in Talent Development, the senior credential. You need at least five years of talent development experience plus at least 60 hours of professional development completed within the last five years (td.org)
- CPTD alternate route — four years of experience plus a current APTD credential, with no extra professional development hours required. This is why many people earn the APTD first (td.org)
- Instructional design certificate — the UND graduate certificate is 12 credits and about one year, and UND says it is aimed at people already doing instructional design work who want the credential (und.edu)
- aPHR or SHRM-CP — useful if your training job sits inside a human resources department. Neither requires a degree or prior HR experience (hrci.org, shrm.org)
The Exams: ATD says the APTD is earned by passing a two-hour standardized exam after you meet the experience and professional development requirements. The CPTD has its own exam covering the full range of talent development capabilities (td.org).
Cost: ATD does not list APTD and CPTD prices on its eligibility pages, so contact ATD for current fees before you plan. A university certificate is charged as regular tuition per credit. Ask a career counselor what help is available.
Keeping It Current: ATD requires recertification every three years for both the APTD and the CPTD, through documented professional development activities (td.org).
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Training and Development Specialist Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $22.97–$25.39/hour ($47,770–$52,810/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $30.41/hour ($63,260/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $39.85–$47.21/hour ($82,890–$98,200/year)
What that means: The middle North Dakota trainer earns about $30.41 an hour, or about $63,260 a year. The bottom quarter, between $22.97 and $25.39, is where you start, and part-time or seasonal training jobs sit down there too. Notice the jump from the median to the 75th percentile, $30.41 to $39.85. That gap is mostly who you work for. Corporate, energy, and health system trainers earn at the top. Nonprofit and small-agency trainers earn at the bottom. North Dakota pays less than the national middle of $33.31, but the North Dakota floor is higher than the national floor of $18.64, so entry pay here is better than in much of the country.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 650 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 730 (about 12% growth). Expect about 60 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 11% growth — much faster than average.
Outlook: Good and growing. About 60 openings a year in North Dakota, with the state growing this job a bit faster than the country. Employers keep adding required training as rules, software, and equipment change.
Who Hires in ND: Hospitals and health systems, energy and oil companies, large manufacturers, banks and credit unions, school districts and colleges, North Dakota state government, tribal colleges and governments, and TrainND regional centers.
Work Setting: A mix of training rooms, offices, and worksites. Mostly indoors. Some trainers travel across the state to deliver classes. Some work is fully online, building and running courses from a desk.
Physical Demands: Low to moderate. You stand and talk for hours when teaching, which is more tiring than it sounds, and you sit at a screen the rest of the time. A stool, a microphone, a headset, and screen reading or magnification software are common and reasonable requests. Travel days involve driving and carrying materials.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 13-1151); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: On-the-job Trainer — Train new hires while doing your regular job.
Path 2: Training Coordinator — Schedule classes and track who attended.
Path 3: Training and Development Specialist — Design and deliver the training yourself.
Path 4: Instructional Designer — Build online courses and materials.
Path 5: Learning Management System Administrator — Run the software that delivers the courses.
Path 6: Training Manager — Lead the training team and set the plan.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- Your job knowledge is the qualification
- You see people get better at their work
- Mix of teaching and building
- Growing faster than average in ND
- Entry pay is decent for ND
- Online and remote work is realistic
What's Hard:
- Adults resist training they find useless
- Public speaking every week
- Many postings still want a bachelor's
- Pay depends a lot on the employer
- Deadlines when a rule changes
- Travel in some jobs
Be Honest: Can you stand in front of a room of adults who would rather be somewhere else and hold their attention? Do you already know a job well enough to teach it? Are you willing to learn course-building software?