A youth development professional leads groups of school-age children in out-of-school-time programs — before- and after-school care, school-break weeks and summer programs — building skills, relationships and independence through activities and group life rather than a preschool curriculum.
Whether a posting says youth development professional, youth development worker or group leader, it is describing this branch of the field.
This guide covers the role, the Military School-Age (MSA) credential, the career path, and what the pay data does and does not show.
What does a youth development professional do?
A youth development professional leads groups of school-age children in out-of-school-time programs: before- and after-school care, school-break weeks, summer programs and youth-center settings.
The work is youth development rather than early education — building skills, relationships and independence through activities and group life, not delivering a preschool curriculum.
Whether the posting labels the job youth development professional, youth development worker, group leader or youth program staff, the work described is this branch of the field.
The day runs on a school-age clock: sign-in, snack, a homework or quiet block, then activity choices — games, crafts, STEM builds, clubs, sports, outdoor play — until each child is signed out to an adult.
O*NET's task list for childcare workers — one of the two BLS occupations a school-age job can be survey-coded into — includes keeping records on individual children and communicating with parents about daily activities and behaviors; in a youth program that becomes attendance and sign-out, incident notes and the end-of-day handoff.
The role overlaps the school-age teacher job in centers — the school-age teacher career guide covers that job's duties, split shift and requirements in detail — and it overlaps camp work when school is out.
BLS notes that part-time work and irregular hours are common for childcare workers, the broader occupation.
Out-of-school-time schedules run on the school calendar by definition: before- and after-school shifts wrap around the school day, and break weeks and summer expand to full days.
- Lead activity blocks: games, crafts, STEM builds, clubs, sports
- Run homework support without turning it into another class
- Handle sign-in, sign-out and the end-of-day handoff
- Keep attendance, incident and medication notes current
- Coach social skills through group life: turn-taking, conflict repair, team norms
What credentials does a youth development professional need?
Two systems set the bar.
Your state child care licensing agency writes the staff rules for licensed programs — minimum age, education, background checks, immunizations, and pre-service and annual training hours — and those rules are state-specific.
BLS's national picture for the broader occupation: requirements vary, with some states requiring a high school diploma or equivalent for entry-level positions and others having no education requirement; to qualify for licensure, staff often must pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations, and meet a minimum training requirement, and some states require CPR and first aid certification.
School-age staff sit inside that system, not outside it.
Under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) framework administered by ACF, states' professional development frameworks must cover caregivers, teachers and directors, including those working in school-age care (45 CFR 98.44).
The training floor your state sets therefore reaches before- and after-school programs, not just infant and preschool classrooms.
Credentials are where the school-age branch differs from early education.
When a state requires a nationally recognized credential for childcare workers, BLS says it is most often the Child Development Associate (CDA) — but none of the CDA's five settings — Infant-Toddler, Preschool, Birth to Five, Family Child Care and Home Visitor — is a civilian school-age setting.
The Council for Professional Recognition's school-age credential is the Military School-Age (MSA) credential, for school-age staff and family child care (FCC) providers on military installations, and staff must complete Foundation Level training to be eligible for it.
Our guide to CDA credential types covers the settings the CDA does have.
Outside the military system, school-age credentials are state-specific.
South Dakota's Department of Social Services, for example, offers a state School-Age Care Credential requiring 120 clock hours of online training, a minimum of 480 hours of experience working directly with school-age children, a portfolio, an observation and an interview, with a 38-hour SAC Certificate as the entry step.
Missouri's training rules count earning a CDA or a Youth Development Credential as 12 clock hours toward that year's training (5 CSR 25-500.102(3)(G)-(H)).
Whether your state has its own school-age credential or endorsement is a question for your licensing agency or workforce registry — check there before you enroll in anything.
Requirements are state rules — confirm them where you live
Youth development professional career path
You can enter through a part-time group role while finishing school or changing careers.
The BLS "typical entry education" for the broader childcare worker occupation is a high school diploma or equivalent — a statistical label, not a state licensing minimum.
From your first shift, write down the group experience you can point to later: ages served, activities you ran, and how you handled a hard moment.
On the civilian side, run your searches across the title family: assistant and group leader, lead staff, site coordinator, program director.
One structured route is apprenticeship: "Child Care Development Specialist" is a DOL-approved Registered Apprenticeship title listed for the childcare worker occupation, pairing paid program work with structured training.
Credentials do concrete work in this field: a state that requires a nationally recognized credential most often asks for the CDA, and the two structured routes here — apprenticeship and the military ladder — each tie training or credentials to a specific rung.
The military branch writes its ladder out level by level.
The Council's own path starts before the credential: staff must complete Foundation Level training to be eligible for the MSA.
Credentials also plug into promotion — in the Air Force and Space Force Child and Youth Program postings we reviewed, the Target level requires 18 months of childcare or youth experience plus DoD competency training, or a CDA, an MSA or another youth credential, or an associate degree with 24 related credits.
Army and Navy programs post their own requirements, so read each posting.
Our child and youth program assistant career guide covers that system in detail.
Summer is a rung of its own: camp season puts you in front of a full-day group with trips, swim days and specialist programming, and our summer camp counselor guide covers how a season converts into year-round work.
When you start applying, run more than one search — the same job can appear under more than one title, such as school-age teacher, youth development professional or group leader. Browse school-age teacher jobs to see what is open now.
How much do youth development professionals make?
The BLS wage data we carry has no separate line for youth development professionals, so any national figure here is a proxy and should be labeled as one.
Recreation workers (SOC 39-9032), the BLS occupation that covers many before/after-school and camp staff, earned a national median of $17.58 an hour or $36,560 a year in May 2025.
The second nearby series is childcare workers (SOC 39-9011): a median of $34,980 a year, or $16.82 an hour, in the same May 2025 release.
Which of the two captures a given school-age job is an employer survey-coding question, so read them side by side rather than ranking them.
Our school-age teacher salary page carries the recreation-worker figures, labeled as a related-occupation benchmark.
For military youth programs, sampled Child and Youth Program Assistant postings on USAJOBS are Nonappropriated Fund (NAF) jobs paid on the CY pay band — a different system from either BLS series; the child and youth program assistant guide covers it.
Read both figures as context for an interview conversation, not as offers: what a posting pays varies with the setting, the state and the program's funding, so compare live openings directly.
This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Staff qualification, training and credential rules are set and updated by your state child care licensing agency — confirm current requirements with the agency where you live or hire.