Military News And Articles

That Work For You

Military Education News And Info

Stay up-to-date with news and information about your military education. You can get the information you need to make informed decisions about your online and military correspondence programs. Learn what's going on with military education and how you can make a smooth military transition. Your civilian career awaits you!

Marine Corps Training More Officers

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Marine Corps has set a goal growing the force to 202,000 Marines, which has been going smoothly on the enlisted side, but it is more time consuming to produce Marine officers, and the Corps has been trying to keep pace.

It takes about one year before a Marine officer can finish all their schooling and be assigned to the fleet as a 2nd Lieutenant in charge of a Marine platoon. The Marine Corps puts its officers through intense training to ensure they are ready to lead Marines.

Ground zero for training Marine officers is The Basic School (TBS) at Quantico, VA. TBS normally graduates about 1,600 lieutenants each year; right now they are on target to graduate 2,000 officers, which has not lessened the quality of the training, but has put a lot of stress on the NCOs who train the men and women.

The Corps is expected to reach its new size by looking to take on 2,050 officer candidates in 2009 and 2,108 by 2010. Despite the increased numbers, the goal of TBS is still the same: teach these new Marine officers the basics of weapons, tactics and how to manage small units like platoons and companies.
There are four ways for men and women to become Marine officers: Officer Candidate Course, Platoon Leaders Class, enlisted to officer programs and finally through graduating from the Naval Academy or the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. A full 64% of Marine officers currently come through the first two options.

The path into the Marine Corps is more direct for enlisted Marines. After graduating from a 12-week basic training known as "boot camp" they can officially call themselves Marines. From there they go to their advanced school to study whatever it is they will do in the Corps: artillery, infantry, intelligence, etc.

Once an enlisted Marine gets settled, he can then further his civilian educational training by using Marine Tuition Assistance (TA), which he can use at any accredited vocational school, community college or university of his choice.

And since many Marines are deployed abroad or are on Naval ships all over the world, they can also using their TA benefit at an accredited online school, so that they can prepare for their civilian career from anywhere in the world. And the best thing about TA is that Marines pay nothing-out-of-pocket – the military pays the schools directly.

Some schools also offer scholarships for military spouses of active-duty Marines. Some scholarships allow a Marine spouse to enroll in a training program at no cost when the Marine uses TA to enroll at that particular school.

Online schools for military come in all shapes and sizes, so Marines should make sure that the school is nationally accredited. The Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) is a government-approved accrediting body that many online schools look to.

Students should also look for live student support, so they can call up a school representative when they have questions about their course or program. Many online schools also work with service members on a consistent basis and can be very helpful with TA paperwork.

Labels: , ,

more>>

Posted by Allied Blogger Admin @ 3:26 PM • 0 comments

Medical Jobs Strong Despite Recession

Although many active-duty service members right now are immune to lay offs and a horrible job market in the civilian economy, it's important that they plan their civilian job strategy now before they get out.


One bright spot in the economy, however, are medical jobs.

But first the bad news: according to government statistics, the U.S. economy continues to lose jobs each month; this past November the economy lost 533,000 jobs and the unemployment rate spiked to 6.7 percent.

But amidst all the bad news, it appears that the health care industry gained 33,800 jobs inside hospitals and in ambulatory health care services. Doctor's offices also needed more medical workers, adding a little over 6,000 workers. And the added jobs aren't just for doctors or nurses, medical office jobs continue to expand.

Now there are a number of explanations for this kind of job activity, but common sense makes clear that people's health will always need attention no matter what the economy is doing, and there is also no stopping the ongoing aging of the baby boomers.

Service members with more time in the military should begin to think about what they will do when the separate from the military. Those who think a job in the medical field would be a good fit, should consider which career might be best for them.

There are a number of careers in a hospital or a doctor's office that one can pursue, including work as a medical transcriptionist, medical biller, medical coder or medical office assistant. And you can easily find schools that offer certificate programs in these fields, many of which offer 100% online courses for military personnel.

How can service members train for a career in the medical field?

Service members can use Military Tuition Assistance, which provides service members with up to $4,500 a year in education funds for classes at the accredited school of their choice. Some service members even decide to train online.

How do you know if an online school is a good one?

There some general rules of thumb to help service members find a good school. The first thing to do is ask people in your unit if they've taken an online course. If they have, find out where they enrolled and what their experience was.

There is also an important accrediting body which accredits online schools. This organization is known as the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) and this will help you sort out good online schools from poor ones.

Another important attribute of an online school is live student support. This means that when you have a question, you can be assured of talking to a person and not getting an answering machine. Studying online at a good school does not mean studying alone.

Another important way to evaluate an online school is to find out how long they have been in business and how many graduates they have had. It's a fair bet that diploma mills don't stay in business for very long. Do a little research on the internet and see what people are saying about a given school, or ask the admissions rep to tell you about the history of the institution.

Labels: , , ,

more>>

Posted by Allied Blogger Admin @ 1:51 PM • 0 comments