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Service Members Increasingly Choose Vocational Training

Friday, August 24, 2007

Almost all service members, whether they plan to use it or not, have at least heard of the Montgomery GI Bill. For some, going to college and using GI Bill money was the main motivation for joining the service. Then there were others, of course, who joined the military solely to ship out on the fleet or to operate an Abrams tank. So, when it comes to their military to civilian transition, some service members are deciding on quick, vocational training instead of enrolling in a four-year university.

It is informative to look at recent census figures concerning national education levels. The U.S. Census Bureau surveyed Americans in 2006 and discovered that only 28% of the population held a bachelor's degree. You can look at this a number of different ways, but one way of understanding it is that more than 70% of Americans make it with less than a four-year degree.

In the Army, for example, only approximately 4% of enlisted soldiers have a bachelor's degree according to a 2005 Army survey. Some of these soldiers will certainly get out of the service, use their military education benefit, and graduate with a college degree -- but many will not.

Vocational training often makes one think of apprentice welders or carpenters, but the age of the Internet has changed all that, allowing service members to train for careers as medical transcriptionists, medical administrative assistants, real estate agents, home inspectors, or any number of other professions. And the real kicker is that they can do it while deployed anywhere in the world -- it is a truly 100% online program education.

Service members can take advantage of online vocational training by using U.S. Military Tuition Assistance (also known as Federal Tuition Assistance), which is a military education benefit often overshadowed by the GI Bill. FTA allows active-duty military personnel to receive up to 100% military Tuition Assistance for online courses.

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