While a lot of us want to help our seniors, we may not know the best way to do this. Gerontology teaches us about that and more, including how we can help the aged among us maintain their lives in the best way possible. However, is there a substantial career to be made after completing your master in gerontology? Are there enough career opportunities available so that we could take up gerontology as a serious career option? Let’s try to answer some of these questions with the help of the following points.
Career Opportunities
After you complete your master degree in gerontology with an online MAGMASM program, your immediate areas of potential employment will be as follows.
- Geriatric health care
- Geriatric Research
- Academics
- Certain sections of the government
The organizations and companies who will be looking to hire you will generally be among the ones mentioned below.
- Retirement communities
- Non-profit agencies
- Geriatric organizations
- Social services
- Research facilities
- Social services
- Hospitals and clinics
- Healthcare and geriatric care facilities
- Home healthcare agencies
- Government agencies and institutions
- Companies that manufacture and market products for senior citizens
The exact nature of the job will vary depending on where you are working, but it can range from anything from helping to formulate government policies for senior citizens to helping elderly care product manufacturers and service providers better understand the needs of their clients. Alternatively, you can also open up your own consultation business.
Do You Need Any Other Degrees?
It depends really because you can either use your master’s degree in gerontology to land a job in any of the fields and sectors mentioned above, or you can augment it with other qualifications such as a nursing degree or a therapist certification to both earn better and open up your career to far more opportunities. Whatever career path you choose though, you may have to go through periodical training courses and take occasional exams to keep yourself updated with the latest developments in the field.
Is there a Future here?
The number of senior citizens who will need professional assistance to live their lives is expected to grow exponentially by the year 2025 and, concurrently, so will the demand for gerontologists. This is a line of profession that can simply never really go out of demand because people will always age and most of them will need help at some point or the other in their lives. If anything, the opportunities will increase in the future, especially as the economy of the US further strengthens itself.
If you already have a bachelor’s degree in gerontology, it is recommended that you put in the extra year necessary to complete your master’s program. It opens up your career to higher salaries, better opportunities, specializations and an in-depth knowledge about specific fields within the profession. You can still hold a job while completing your masters in gerontology online, so there’s not really any valid excuse to skip it.