Degrees in Human Services

Q: What can you do with a degree in human services?

A human services degree can lead to roles such as case manager, community outreach specialist, social and human service assistant, and program coordinator. With an advanced degree, it can also support clinical careers like counseling or healthcare social work, and serves as preparation for graduate study in related fields.

Q: Is a human services degree the same as a social work degree?

No. Social work is a licensed profession with specific accreditation and credential requirements, while human services is a broader interdisciplinary field. A social work degree is the more direct path to clinical licensure such as the LCSW.

Q: How long does it take to earn a degree in human services?

An associate degree typically takes about two years, a bachelor's degree about four years, and a master's degree about two additional years. Doctoral programs vary but often take three to seven years beyond the master's level.

Q: Do you need a master's degree for clinical human services work?

Yes. Most licensed clinical roles, such as counselors, clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists, require a graduate degree and supervised experience before licensure.

Q: Is a degree in human services worth it?

For those interested in helping professions, it can be a valuable investment. Employment in community and social service roles is expected to grow, though entry-level salaries may be modest depending on the role and location.

Written by Dr. Nicole Harrington, Last Updated: May 4, 2026

Degrees in human services are available at the associate through doctoral levels, covering social work, counseling, and community services. An associate or bachelor’s degree qualifies you for entry-level roles, while a master’s is typically required for clinical or management positions. The field is broadly interdisciplinary, making these degrees a flexible foundation for a wide range of helping careers.

Degrees in human services offer a broad education in communication, regulation, and cultural competency that qualify you for a wide range of positions in social service and assistance programs. Degrees are available at the associate through doctoral levels to provide qualifications for everything from entry-level administrative work to high-level management and policy jobs.

A degree in human services can be a meaningful path for those interested in social impact careers.

You pursue this kind of education not just because you are interested in a job and a career. You do it because you are interested in health, equity, and justice. You see a role for yourself in making lives better, and you have a hunger for the knowledge you need to do the work well.

Featured Programs:

Degrees in Human Services at a Glance

Human services degrees span four levels, each building on the last and opening different career doors. Here is a quick overview before diving into the details of each level.

Degree Level	Typical Duration	Career Entry Point
Associate	~2 years	Entry-level support, coordination, and outreach roles
Bachelor’s	~4 years	Case management, program coordination, and community services
Master’s	2 years after bachelor’s	Clinical practice, licensed counseling, agency management
Doctoral	3-7 years after master’s	Research, policy, senior administration, and academic roles

What Makes a Degree in Human Services Different from a Social Work Degree?

Human services is a broad subject. As an interdisciplinary field, it includes a range of professions. Our overview of what human services professionals actually do covers these roles in more detail. They include:

Professional counseling
Marriage and family therapy
Psychology
Social workers

Around the edges, human services work is also performed by professionals as varied as nurses, sociologists, and first responders.

So why would you choose to get a degree in human services instead of a more specific field of practice?

Sometimes, the Broader Perspective is More Illuminating

A narrow focus in any particular kind of human services work is great for specialists, but sometimes keeps them from knowing about or seeing solutions available through other types of human services. It’s the old “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” issue. Counselors counsel, therapists offer therapy, social workers socialize… but sometimes a client needs someone who can tie it all together and get them all the different services they need for each of their issues.

A man named Jose came to Phoenix in 2013. It was by bus, he remembers, but he couldn’t remember how or why. He’d lived on the streets in his native Puerto Rico and in New York for a time, but by the time he arrived in Phoenix, he was 79 and couldn’t remember his birthday or come up with any identifying documents. Like so many in similar positions, he ended up in the hands of a non-profit human services agency.

Jose had a lot of challenges, way outside the scope of a single specialist. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He had no home, no health insurance, no family, and no way to find any.

Human services specialists, however, were able to work with various private and government agencies to uncover his identity and enroll him in Social Security and health insurance programs. They found an assisted living facility for him that specializes in memory care. And although his closest blood relatives were found to have passed away, now he says he has a family: the human service professionals who have taken care of him.

That’s where this broader education comes in handy. With a broad, interdisciplinary perspective on everything that human services can accomplish, you’re better equipped to understand all the options for assistance and offer objective recommendations on what would be best for the task at hand. You will get more exposure to all the different kinds of human services programs and specialties, and you may see solutions that specialists won’t even be aware of.

A degree in human services offers the broad perspective you need to identify the right solutions for people in need.

Finally, that kind of perspective gives you the ability to help coordinate services that are coming from different kinds of human service professionals. You can help them talk to one another and to the clients and sort out any snags.

A Generalist Degree Offers More Employment Options in More Fields

It’s also true that it’s often better to get a more general bachelor’s degree if you are not completely sure what field you want to specialize in. Many human services roles require a master’s-level or higher education. Social work, psychology, or even nursing will probably need a graduate degree. But what if you aren’t sure which direction you want to go? Many students spend a lot of their college experience figuring out what it is they really want to do in life.

Starting off with a human services degree gives you the flexibility to go into any of the most popular specializations in human services work.

On the other hand, if you start off with, say, a bachelor’s in nursing, you could find it quite difficult to transition to social work or some other highly specialized field.

The multidisciplinary degree in human services is generally considered a degree that will prepare you for any of the various specialties that you might decide to go into later in your career. It’s a good investment, no matter what path you decide to follow.

You Can’t Be Effective in Human Services Leadership Without a Human Services Education

In a similar way, if you want to become a leader and manager in human services, it’s helpful to get the big-picture perspective of the field. A high-level administrator in a human services agency might need to know a bit about social work, a bit about counseling, and a few things about healthcare. Getting a specialized degree in any of those fields leaves you hanging when it comes to what you need to know about the others.

A human services degree, on the other hand, gives you a general perspective and important knowledge in all of those fields and more. And it offers the kind of preparation you need to lead and bring human services professionals together to accomplish bigger things.

Human services training often comes from a socioecological perspective that helps you make cross-disciplinary connections that specialists might miss. That is particularly true at the level of policy and advocacy. You can’t afford to lose sight of the conditions on the ground, in the community, when you are lobbying for new laws or funding.

As a human services leader, you have to have the kind of education that gives you a view from every side of the table. You need to understand budgeting, politics, and the latest in sociological research. And you have to tie those views together to support your positions on social justice efforts.

That kind of general education lets you accomplish all of that and more.

What Skills Will You Learn With a Degree in Human Services?

Even though human services degrees are not specialized in the way that a social work or counseling degree is, they offer a valuable set of core skills training that can serve you well in all kinds of human services jobs.

Communication and Social Skills
A human service professional, you won’t be shocked to find out, spends a lot of time dealing with humans. That means communication skills are key. You will be expected to learn written and verbal communication styles, focusing on clarity and empathy in order to help you get your point across with compassion but without confusion. Maybe most importantly, you will learn active listening skills, improving your communication skills by drawing information out of your clients while you build trust and understanding.

Human Psychology
When you deal with humans, you inevitably deal with human psychology. With a human service degree, jobs available to you involve working with folks who probably have even deeper psychological issues than most. A part of helping them is understanding those issues, so you’ll receive training in basic psychology, both for individuals and social psychology. You’ll also have classes in counseling in both individual and group settings.

Problem-Solving
People who are new to human services work sometimes are surprised at how much of it involves just basic problem-solving skills. Clients have often lost their ability to work through the causes of their issues or to think through possible solutions. That becomes your job. Although you won’t find a class on problem solving on the curriculum, you will get plenty of courses designed to build your critical thinking and analysis skills.

Ethics and Human Services Law
Part of helping people figure out problems is understanding what the available solutions look like. That means getting a solid understanding of what the laws and regulations regarding human services work look like. And together with the laws on the books, you’ll get rigorous training in the more fundamental rules of ethics that govern your interactions with the vulnerable populations you work with.

Community Organizing
Solutions in human services don’t just revolve around fixing individual issues. In many cases, system problems require system action. That means knowing how to get organized. Things you could never accomplish on your own can become light work if you get the entire community pulling in the same direction. You will learn the basics of contacting and organizing communities, large and small, as you study for your degree in human services.

Advocacy and Leadership
Another step up from just organizing involves leading. Whether you are responsible for only a small team of rehab case workers or end up running an entire government social services agency, your degree in human services will have classes to prepare you to step up and lead from the front. One of the most important tasks for human service professionals at every level is to be a voice for people who have no voice. A good degree in a human services program will prepare you to speak out and advocate for those in need.

Learning By Doing Is a Critical Part of Degrees in Human Services

One hallmark of a good degree in human services is that it includes hands-on field experience. There is no substitute for getting out on the ground and handling real crises with real people to test your training. In fact, to receive specialty accreditation for a degree in a human services program, colleges have to provide field experience that is integrated with their basic curriculum. Students should be exposed to human services agencies and clients early in their training and have hundreds of clock hours involved with everything from observation to direct client contact.

Your supervised experience in a degree program in human services will be a big eye-opener about the realities facing human service professionals. Depending on your own background, you might find yourself experiencing cultures you didn’t even know existed and meeting people you would never encounter normally. You will certainly be confused and a little overwhelmed by the chaos at first.

But you’re getting dipped into those experiences with plenty of guidance and advice. It’s a learning experience, one that you will build by processes like keeping logs of your experiences, meeting with your professor and class, and conducting research and writing papers to process and pull insights from your encounters.

You will be prepared for the experience by getting assignments that are based on the mission of the agency you are placed with. A placement at an after-school program for minority boys in the inner city might come along with research assignments about learning styles or the effects of poverty on academic achievement, for instance. An internship at a homeless shelter might involve projects to study how urban planning can mitigate the crisis.

Tying those kinds of academic studies to your lived experiences in real social and human services agencies is what turns theory into practice in human services jobs.

That kind of real-world experience gives potential employers a reason to be confident in you and your skills right after graduation. You will get the benefits of that experience while you’re still working under the oversight of your instructors and supervisors, which ensures you will get it right the first time when you are out on your own.

The Importance of Accreditation for Degrees in Human Services

To make sure that human services degree programs include all those important elements, the Council for Standards in Human Service Education (CSHSE) was established in 1979. The Council is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as a primary specialty accreditor for programs in human services at American universities and colleges.

That means the organization has the right connections in the industry, the right evaluators, and the right standards to ensure that human services degrees deliver the kind of education they promise you. The quality, consistency, and relevancy of any program that gets its stamp of approval are well-established.

There are a limited number of programs accredited by CSHSE in the United States, so they represent a select group. You can explore CSHSE-accredited associate programs by region if you’re starting at that level. The Council offers accreditation at the associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degree levels.

Every program has to meet 10 general standards that cover the philosophical basis, personnel, cultural competency requirements, and other general academic and administrative qualifications. These are general best practices that make sure the school has the basic competencies in organization and teaching down cold. In practice, these aspects are also covered by the general regional accreditation that most schools already hold.

The meat and potatoes come in the curriculum standards. There are separate categories for associate/baccalaureate evaluation and for master’s program, but they evaluate whether or not the program conveys the information that new human services grads at any level need to know. They include:

History of the field
Human systems
Services delivery systems
Inquiry and information literacy
Program planning and evaluation
Client interventions and strategies
Interpersonal communication
Values and attitudes
Administration
Self-development
Field experience

Although each standard has clear objectives and requirements, every school chooses how to teach those standards. CSHSE programs don’t come out of a cookie-cutter. There can be real differences in philosophy and the details. But you can be assured you are getting everything you need to know when you attend an accredited degree program in human services.

Accredited Degrees in Human Services Offer a Shortcut to Board Certification

Another reason to go with an accredited degree in human services is that it makes your path to earning a Human Service Board-Certified Practitioner credential a bit easier.

Offered by the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) in collaboration with CSHSE, the HS-BCP credential is part of a larger trend in all human services fields to develop a more professional and effective workforce. The HS-BCP normally requires passing a national standards examination and proving that you have accumulated at least 350 hours of post-graduate work experience in the field.

If you graduated with your degree from a CSHSE-accredited school, however, you will be exempt from the experience requirement. Since CSHSE standards include field experience standards, the Board already knows you have the practical experience you need from working in jobs with human services degree requirements.

NOHS (National Organization for Human Services) was founded in 1975 largely because the state of human services education wasn’t meeting the needs of communities. Both professional care providers and politicians faced frustration in getting qualified candidates to work in an expanding and increasingly specialized field.

There were already professional bodies out there to support social workers, therapists, counselors, and psychologists. But cooperation and communication between the fields were lacking.

With the support of both the National Institute of Mental Health and the Southern Regional Education Board, NOHS was created to develop and strengthen the kind of human services education programs at every level that would fix those problems.

Today, the organization offers a way for the various human services professional organizations and practitioners to communicate. It supports the research and curriculum development that goes into what you study every day in human services degree programs. And it supports state, local, and national human services organizations to further the professionalization of the field. There are six regional organizations that are affiliated with NOHS:

New England Organization for Human Service
Mid-Atlantic Consortium for Human Services
Southern Organization for Human Services
Midwest Organization for Human Services
Northwest Human Services Association
Western Region of Human Service Professionals

What a Degree in Human Services Will Cost

A college degree in the United States is one of the most prized academic credentials in the world. People come here from all over to study at superb American universities.

But those degrees do not come cheap.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) tracks college costs in a variety of categories. According to recent NCES data, the average annual cost of attendance at a public two-year community college was approximately $4,000 as of 2022/2023, putting the total cost at around $8,000 for an associate degree.

For public four-year universities, the annual cost is about what your entire two-year degree will run you at the associate level. Each year of attendance for a public four-year bachelor’s program was approximately $9,800 on average as of that same period.

Your total cost for a human services bachelor’s degree can approach $100k or more, depending on school type and living costs when you factor in tuition, fees, and room and board, especially at private schools. The costs go up as the degrees get more advanced. NCES data for the 2021/2022 school year shows that the average cost of a two-year master’s degree in the U.S. was $25,192. That is assuming you attend a public school at the in-state tuition rate. Private schools, or attending out-of-state schools, can run about double that cost.

For doctoral programs, the annual costs are similar to master’s programs, but you will spend more than twice as long earning the degree, sending those costs skyrocketing.

Paying For Your Degree in Human Services

All these expenses can add up to a lot of debt before you even become a human service professional. Figuring out how to pay for your degree in human services without getting saddled with crushing debt is an important part of your plan.

Scholarships for Human Services Degrees

You can start in the same place that any college student will start: the federal Pell Grant program. Available to undergraduate students who can demonstrate a financial need, these awards can reach more than $6,000 per year and do not need to be paid back.

There are also scholarships that are granted exclusively to students pursuing human services work. These are usually granted by colleges themselves that have endowments for that purpose, or by organizations that are already engaged in funding human services work.

You may qualify for these simply by majoring in human services. For example, NOHS offers scholarships, awards, and research grants to students enrolled in a human services program at the associate, bachelor’s, or master’s level.

In other cases, you might qualify based not only on your interest in a degree in human services but also on other personal factors. The Pride Foundation offers the Bill Bendiner and Doug Morgenson Scholarship for $12,000 to students interested in human services who have resided in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or Washington for one year, and who self-identify as LGBT or come from LGBT families. The National Federation of Filipino American Associations offers the Alex Esclamado Scholarships in Human Services to students of Filipino descent who are studying in the field.

Other scholarships may be available depending on your ethnic and socioeconomic background, entirely separate from your course of studies.

Scholarships are competitive, so even if you qualify, you usually have to do more than just apply. The typical scholarship will not only require proof of financial status, ethnicity, and residency, but also recommendations from teachers or coworkers, and an essay in which you make your case as a good candidate for the award. No one wants to throw money away, so anything in your background that demonstrates your commitment to both your studies and the field of human services will be valuable. That can include volunteering at a local homeless shelter or significant personal impacts from human services work.

College Loans for Human Services Degrees

It’s unusual to be able to pay for your education entirely through grants and scholarships. Unless you or your family have a lot of money lying around the house, that probably puts you in the same boat as the majority of college students in the country: taking out student loans.

The average amount borrowed for student loans between the academic school years of 2010-11 to 2020-21 at the bachelor’s degree level was $30,800, according to NCES.

That can be more than half your annual salary, so it’s a big commitment. Although student loans are low-interest and have generous repayment schedules, there’s a lot hanging over your head as you start out in a career.

You do have to be cautious about where you get those loans, however. There are predatory private lenders that charge higher rates and have less generous terms. A good place to start instead is through the Federal Student Aid programs. Although the paperwork is intimidating, it’s well worth your time to apply for this type of loan before you look for private options.

That’s because human services fall into the category of public service. That can make you eligible for a terrific program that can have your loans forgiven after a certain period of time through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

If you have outstanding federal student loan debt, but you work for a government agency or non-profit, you can have that debt canceled after making a minimum of 120 payments. Since many human services professionals work in government or non-profit settings, this can make you a strong candidate for this program.

Some states have similar loan forgiveness programs, so don’t forget to investigate the options in the area where you plan to work.

An Associate Degree in Human Services Offers a Ground-Level Entry Point Into the Profession

An associate degree in human services will usually take about two years to complete, or a little over 60 credits of coursework. You can find these degrees at both community colleges, which only offer two-year programs, or four-year universities.

In both cases, an associate degree can either serve as its own level of qualification for some types of human service jobs or as a starting point for a baccalaureate degree. Many four-year human services degree programs will accept an associate degree as fulfilling the first two years of study for a full four-year bachelor’s degree. That offers you a less expensive route to a better job, since two-year schools are typically less expensive and easier to get into than larger universities.

Associate-level coursework will focus on ground-floor introductions to psychology, sociology, communications, and the other basic skillsets outlined for human services jobs. Specializations are not common at the associate level, but some applied programs may have tracks for substance abuse, family violence, or other specific types of training.

With your human services degree, jobs you qualify for will be entry-level at best. The degree is an excellent choice for a low-cost, flexible way to get started on a four-year bachelor’s degree; however, many universities accept the two years of study at the associate level as fulfilling the first two years of a bachelor’s degree.

The Differences Between Arts and Sciences Degrees in Human Services

As you look at associate programs, you will notice they come in a few different flavors. None of these has any practical difference in the kinds of work you can do or how employers will view your degree.

Associate of Arts in Human Services (AA): AA degrees may be the least common type of degree in human services at this level. These degrees often offer a more well-rounded general education and cover topics outside the usual course of study in human services.
Associate of Science in Human Services (AS): The AS degree is more common in human services studies. It has a stronger focus on the practical elements of human services training, with less general coursework than an AA.
Associate of Applied Science in Human Services (AAS): This type of science degree may be the most common one offered at the associate level. An AAS degree is focused almost entirely on the core topics of study needed by human service professionals. It aims to get graduates job-ready by the time of graduation, but is not always accepted for transfer to four-year programs because it contains few or no general studies courses. An AAS is more likely to offer certain specializations than the other degree types.

Your choice in terms of getting a human services job won’t matter a great deal. The AAS will help you hit the ground running, but an AA or AS will be equally accepted by any employer.

The real difference comes in terms of transferability to a four-year degree. If you plan to move up to earn a bachelor’s in any field, an AA or AS might be a better choice because they will be more likely to transfer. This depends a lot on both the school you get the associate degree from and the one you plan to transfer to. If you plan to attend a school further away, you might find that no matter what kind of degree you get, not all of the credits will be accepted for transfer.

A Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services Forms The Strong Base of a Career

A four-year bachelor’s degree in human services is where your career will really start to flourish. This is the minimum degree level for many jobs in the field, and it’s required for any kind of promotion above the entry level.

That’s because your coursework gets both broader and deeper than at the associate level. Almost all bachelor’s programs in human services are bachelor of science degrees, tightly focused on practical matters in the field.

Bachelor’s Programs Have More Depth in Human Services Subjects

Bachelor’s programs have the time to take a deep dive into the skills and expertise required for human services jobs. You’ll get multiple classes on all of the core subjects mentioned above, plus dozens of elective options in various specialized practices in human services, topics like:

Substance abuse and society
Digital health and wellness
Emotional Intelligence
Motivational interviewing
Medical and psychosocial aspects of disability

It’s a terrific opportunity to tailor your education to exactly the area you want to work in. If you don’t know what area that is yet, it’s also the perfect chance to learn more about a lot of different aspects of human services, so you can pick a focus later.

Bachelor’s degrees are also more likely to offer concentrations in the field, such as:

Substance Use and Recovery
Military and Veteran Support
Rehabilitative Services
Social and Emotional Wellness

Bachelor’s Programs Have More Breadth in General Education

You’ve got four years of study to fill here, and it won’t all be in human services. The great advantage of the bachelor’s degree in human services is that you will spend a lot of your credit hours studying a wide range of subjects outside the human services field.

Stuff like math, literature, and history might not seem to have a lot to do with your job at first glance. But they are all part of becoming a well-rounded citizen and human service professional. The general studies requirements in your degree are designed to sharpen your critical thinking skills and expand your general knowledge of the world you live in. That’s the same world that needs your effort and compassion to help those in need. The better you understand it, the more you will be able to help.

There are also general requirements at the bachelor’s level that can be useful as a human service professional. Your required social studies courses will expose you to other cultures that you might end up working with in the field, and language requirements can build your communication skills to work with immigrant communities.

If cost is a deciding factor, our guide to the most affordable bachelor’s programs in human services can help you compare options by price and accreditation status.

What You’ll Study

Your exact curriculum will depend on the school and any concentration you choose, but most bachelor’s programs in human services cover a consistent core. Expect coursework in human development, social welfare policy, case management, research methods, and cultural competency. You’ll also take classes in counseling techniques, crisis intervention, and program planning. Electives and concentrations let you build toward specific areas such as child welfare, substance use recovery, healthcare navigation, or community organizing.

Programs typically include introductory courses in psychology, sociology, and statistics as general requirements. Understanding research methods helps you evaluate programs you’ll eventually design or manage. A working knowledge of psychology and sociology is part of how human services professionals read a situation and identify the right response.

Fieldwork Experience in Bachelor’s Programs

The bachelor’s level is also where your field work experience really kicks into high gear. You’ll rack up hundreds of hours of supervised fieldwork with real-life clients facing real-life problems, usually at a variety of different real-world human services agencies.

That kind of on-the-job training both hones your skills and gives you a clear idea of the different kinds of jobs with a human services degree that are available.

If you are cut out for a career in human services, the field experience you get in your degree program will get your blood pumping and give you a renewed sense of purpose.

You will spend time working with clients in both group settings and one-on-one, and always with the guidance of experienced professionals to keep you on the rails as you build confidence and technique.

Getting Into a Human Services Program

Admission requirements vary by school and degree level, but the bar for undergraduate human services programs is generally accessible. Most require a high school diploma or GED, a completed application, and transcripts. Some programs ask for a personal statement describing your interest in the field, and a few include interviews or writing samples.

For graduate programs, expect to submit a bachelor’s degree transcript, letters of recommendation, and a statement of purpose. Some master’s programs prefer applicants who have relevant work or volunteer experience in human services. Programs with a clinical focus may have more selective admissions. Contact your target school directly for specifics, as requirements vary more at the graduate level than at the undergraduate level.

Learn More About The Bachelor of Human Services Degree

Earning a Master’s Degree in Human Services Opens New Doors in Advanced Practice

Master’s degrees in human services are becoming the new normal as the field becomes more and more professionalized. These two-year programs stack on top of your bachelor’s degree with a much greater focus on the details and in specific focus areas within the profession.

A master’s is typically required in most states for clinical work in counseling and therapy, which carries state licensing requirements. You’ll also need to pick up a master’s if you are headed for management in human services-focused agencies or non-profits.

You’ll find a wealth of concentration options in most master’s programs, such as:

Criminal Justice
Grief Counseling
Student Affairs
Life Coaching
Trauma and Crisis Counseling
Management
Family and Community Services

The coursework will reflect the concentration you pick, along with more advanced studies in general human services subjects like:

Behavioral science
Ethics
Cultural awareness and competency

You’ll also get even more time in the field at the master’s level, working at a more advanced level than your bachelor’s studies, and typically within your chosen focus area.

The Master’s Thesis Offers Both Research and Understanding

A traditional part of master’s-level studies is the thesis paper. A unique analytical research paper that is the product of your own original thinking and research, it’s designed as an in-depth experience to sum up the knowledge and practice you have learned during your master’s studies.

The thesis paper offers you the opportunity to direct the structure of your degree in a way that will shape it specifically to fulfill your career goals. Together with your thesis advisor, you’ll choose a topic that is both relevant to your studies and of interest to the field of human services as a whole. You then conduct research studies, either experiments you design yourself or investigations of existing literature, and come to conclusions based on that research.

This all results in a publication-worthy paper ranging from 40 to 80 pages in length that you will have to defend against a committee of faculty and other human services professionals so that every tiny flaw is discovered and corrected. It’s a challenging experience, but one that really puts a capstone on your studies.

More and more degrees in human services are making the thesis optional today, offering a capstone project as an alternative. While it is just as in-depth and challenging, a project is more action-oriented, involving setting up real services or programs to explore and assess your ideas.

Either option really cements the education you get as a master’s graduate and prepares you for a career as a high-level human service professional.

Learn More About a Master’s of Human Services Degree

A Doctoral Degree in Human Services Takes You To The Highest Level

The very highest level of study in human services is the doctoral degree. Taking between three and seven years to earn, these programs combine a high level of instruction and investigation into core human services concepts with a high degree of independence and the ability to build your own path.

Doctoral programs offer the same type of concentration options as you find at the master’s level.

Doctoral programs in human services frequently focus on management or administrative roles compared to the clinical training you find at the master’s level.

In addition to concentration options, you also have several different types of doctorates to pursue at this level.

Doctor of Philosophy: The most common doctoral program for human services professionals is the PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy. These programs tend to have a strong academic and theoretical focus and were originally intended for professionals looking for careers in teaching or research. They are the most common doctorate offered in the field; however, graduates occupy all types of advanced positions in human services.
Doctor of Human Services: The DHS degree is a relatively new doctorate in the field. Where a PhD focuses more heavily on research and academic applications, the DHS focuses on applied studies in human services. It’s a professional doctorate aimed at individuals who plan to work effectively as managers and high-level practitioners in the field, as opposed to researchers or academic positions.
Doctor of Education: The EdD is an uncommon type of human services doctorate. But it’s one that makes a lot of sense for anyone who plans to specialize with a human services degree for jobs in schools or the field of education. Like the DHS, it’s a professional doctorate, designed to prepare graduates for real-world applications of human services theory. But unlike the more general DHS, the EdD is focused specifically on applications in the world of education.

As a practical matter, the advanced education you get with any of these degrees will qualify you for all doctoral-level human services jobs. There are many PhDs working in hands-on clinical positions, and DHS grads who are professors or who work in educational settings. The choice of degree has more implications for the ease of finding resources and support in your selected field of study.

Doctoral Dissertations Put a Stamp on Your Career

You have an opportunity to further customize your studies through your choice of dissertation topic. The dissertation is a version of the master’s thesis on steroids. It’s about three times as long and can take as much as two entire years of your program to focus on. You’ll do more research and come up with more creative and independent thoughts as part of the process.

Your dissertation will be the primary thing you are known for as you enter the profession. It can shape the entire course of your career. You will likely be asked to present on the topic at regional or national conferences, and you may end up publishing in academic journals.

That makes your choice of topic very important, and the quality of work has to be to the highest standard.

Learn More About the Doctorate of Human Services Degree

Going with a Degree in Human Services Online Offers More Flexible Training Options

Although many degree programs were offered online before COVID-19, the mass transition to online classes worldwide settled the question of whether an online degree is equal to traditional studies. Our directory of online human services degree programs covers associate, bachelor’s, and master’s options if you’re ready to compare formats.

Online learning has become a widely accepted option, and that shift accelerated significantly during the coronavirus pandemic.

That kind of flexibility is something you can take full advantage of at any level of education in human services.

With remote studies, you have the option of choosing from programs in human services all over the country. You can maintain your current residency and keep your cost of living the same, which can offer real financial advantages. That’s not to mention the fact that you avoid the hassle of having to relocate for four to eight years.

Because online programs are also usually offered asynchronously, you get the advantage of flexibility in time as well as space. You can choose to stream classes at 3 am while you are lying in bed, or at work on your lunch break. It’s far easier to coordinate online learning around your existing work or family obligations, which means you can keep your life pretty much how it is, even as you build for your future.

With the strong emphasis on practical field experience, even the most online program in human services isn’t really entirely online. They are more often hybrid programs, with academic work completed over the internet and your regular field placements on-site at actual human services agencies. Still, that lets you stick with your own town and focus on the communities closest to you, which gives you a leg up on your future job prospects versus if you had to do all your fieldwork halfway across the state.

What Kind of Jobs are Available With a Human Services Degree?

With a human services degree, jobs you’ll qualify for cover a wide range of specialties. Since a human services degree can serve as an entry point to everything from social work to clinical psychology, employment in human services offers a tremendous range of different salaries, working environments, and job duties.

Almost all of those jobs are on the table with a degree in human services, but the more specialized positions, which usually come with higher salaries, probably also require advanced degrees in a specific field. But a degree in human services at the associate or bachelor’s level can set you up for earning that advanced degree for a job as a psychologist or clinical social worker.

Because the range of possibilities is so broad, you’re better off checking out our pages about careers in social work, how to become a psychologist, or about the counseling occupation, if those are paths you are interested in. You can also get a deep dive into human services salaries if you are most interested in the numbers side of the field.

Most of these careers fall into a broad category established by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as Community and Social Service Occupations. As a whole, jobs for this group of professions are expected to grow faster than average. The BLS projects about 299,400 community and social service job openings per year during that period, including both new positions and replacement needs.

That’s good news on the employment front, since it means you will have plenty of opportunities, no matter what level your degree is at.

Jobs and Salaries You Can Expect with a Human Services Degree

As noted, most human services workers will find jobs in either federal, state, or local government agencies or in non-profits dedicated to public assistance work. And those jobs can involve everything from spending your days in court as a guardian ad litem for neglected children to hopping around to disaster areas to arrange for housing for displaced victims.

The thread all of them have in common is that they take full advantage of the kind of education you get in a degree in human services, and they deliver challenging, meaningful opportunities to do important work every day. A full breakdown of positions and salaries can be found on our Human Service Salaries page. Here is a quick overview of several key roles, with median and top 10% annual salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024. These are national estimates; actual salaries vary by location and experience.

Job Title	Median Salary	Top 10%	What They Do
Social and Human Service Assistant	$45,120	$63,850	Found in settings from food banks to crisis hotlines, handling coordination, outreach, and light case support services
Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor	$59,190	$98,210	Provide counseling and support to individuals dealing with addiction, behavioral disorders, or mental health conditions
Child, Family, and School Social Worker	$58,570	$94,030	Support children and families in crisis, coordinate services, and advocate within the child welfare and school systems
Healthcare Social Worker	$68,090	$100,870	Coordinate care for patients transitioning out of acute medical settings, arranging social assistance and follow-up services
Social and Community Service Manager	$78,240	$129,820	Plan, direct, and coordinate the programs of social service organizations and government agencies

Frequently Asked Questions

What can you do with a degree in human services?

A human services degree opens doors to a broad range of careers in social services, nonprofits, and government agencies. Common roles include case manager, community outreach specialist, social and human service assistant, and program coordinator. With an advanced degree, you can qualify for clinical positions such as a licensed counselor or a healthcare social worker. The degree also serves as preparation for graduate study in social work, psychology, or counseling.

Is a human services degree the same as a social work degree?

No. Social work is a licensed profession with its own accreditation standards, credential requirements, and clinical scope. Human services is an interdisciplinary field that draws on social work, psychology, counseling, and public health. A human services degree offers broader preparation for generalist roles, while a social work degree leads more directly to licensed clinical practice. If your goal is to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a social work degree is the more direct path.

How long does it take to earn a degree in human services?

An associate degree takes about two years. A bachelor’s degree typically takes four years, though transferring associate-level credits can reduce that time. A master’s degree adds approximately two years after a bachelor’s degree. Doctoral programs vary widely, generally running three to seven years beyond the master’s level.

Do you need a master’s degree for clinical human services work?

For most licensed clinical roles, a master’s degree is required. Licensed counselors, clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists are typically required to hold a graduate degree and complete supervised hours before obtaining state licensure. Entry-level and support roles are generally accessible with an associate or bachelor’s degree. Requirements vary by state, so check with the relevant licensing board in your area for specifics.

Is a degree in human services worth it?

For those drawn to careers that directly support individuals and communities, it can be a sound investment. Employment across community and social service occupations is projected to grow, and the field employs hundreds of thousands of workers nationally. That said, many roles in human services carry modest salaries at the entry level, so it’s worth researching salary ranges and any licensure requirements for the specific career you’re targeting before committing to a degree level.

Key Takeaways

Human services is an interdisciplinary field: It draws on social work, counseling, psychology, and public health, offering broader preparation than any single specialty.
Degrees are available at every level: From two-year associate programs through doctoral study, with each level opening different career doors.
CSHSE accreditation matters: Programs accredited by the Council for Standards in Human Service Education meet verified curriculum and field experience standards.
Clinical roles require graduate education: Licensed counselors, clinical social workers, and therapists typically need a master’s degree plus supervised hours to obtain state licensure.
Online programs are widely available: Most human services degree programs offer some or all coursework remotely, though field placements remain on-site.

Ready to explore human services programs in your state? Use our state guides to find degree programs, review licensing requirements, and take the next step toward your career.

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Dr. Nicole Harrington

Dr. Nicole Harrington, Ph.D., LCSW, HS-BCP is a licensed clinical social worker and Board Certified Human Services Practitioner with 20+ years in practice, supervision, and teaching. She earned her MSW from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. in Human Services from Walden University. At Human Services Edu, she ensures all content aligns with standards from CSHSE, CSWE, CACREP, and MPCAC.

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2024 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and employment figures for Social Workers, Social and Human Services Assistants, Social and Community Service Managers, and Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors, reflect state and national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed April 2026.

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