High School

High school courses useful to cashiers include bookkeeping, typing, business machine operation, and business arithmetic.

Postsecondary Training

For some kinds of more complicated cashier jobs, employers might prefer applicants who are graduates of a two-year community college or business school. Businesses often fill cashier positions by promoting existing employees, such as clerk-typists, baggers, and ushers.

Certification or Licensing

There are no certification or licensing requirements for cashiers.

There are no specific educational or experience requirements for many cashier jobs. Some employers, however, prefer high school graduates and will also look favorably upon those applicants who have worked as a cashier in a school store or community activity. All applicants should have math skills since cashiers are required to make change and to count the money in their registers. Applicants should also have such people skills as courtesy and friendliness when helping customers, the ability to pay attention to customers' questions and complaints, and the patience to remain calm when customers get upset or angry. On the physical side, cashiers must have dexterity in their hands in order to operate cash registers and scan purchases. Stamina is also needed, since cashiers must be able to stand for long periods. Like many jobs that require interaction with the public, cashiers should be cooperative and flexible, dependable, tolerant of stress, able to control their emotions, sensitive to the needs of others, and able to work with little or no supervision.