Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant

 

Types of Degrees Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	638
Undergraduate Certificate	122
Associate Degree	26

What Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant Majors

Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant:

• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

Abilities for Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant Majors

Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.

What Can You Do With a Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Major?

People with a food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Cooks	9.0%	$28,650
Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria	7.7%	$26,860
Cooks, Private Household	5.2%	$37,590

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant?

Roughly 50% of the graduates are women, and 50% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	3
Hispanic or Latino	5
White	15
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

How Much Do Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $28,290 to $41,240 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant

Some careers associated with food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	2.9%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	58.1%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	22.2%
Some College Courses	10.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	6.5%
Bachelor’s Degree	4.5%

Online Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	29	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	6	1
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant Worth It?

The median salary for a food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant grad is $30,360 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Food Preparation/Kitchen Assistant

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to food preparation/professional cooking/kitchen assistant.

Major	Number of Grads
Culinary Arts/Chef Training	10,546
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef	5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts	3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager	1,394
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services	335
Institutional Food Workers	204
Culinary Science/Culinology	203
Bartending/Bartender	157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager	82
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter	28
Wine Steward/Sommelier	8

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Army Europe Images under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.