While veterans and other military-connected individuals are sometimes deluged with information about higher education, there is often a disconnect between their needs and the actual points of access that will get them to the stable, fulfilling careers they desire. A key element is figuring out how to transition from military occupations and receive credit for the valuable skills learned during service.
“A common career pathway for Army medics is paramedic/emergency services. There are accelerated programs that give credit for these medics to attain an advanced paramedic credential,” says Amy Sherman, associate vice president of innovation and policy for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL).
To help military-connected individuals understand the landscape and access bridge programs, CAEL collaborated with the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) to produce the online guide Valuing Military Learning — A Guide to Military Prior Learning Assessment and More. The key piece is helping veterans and service members learn more about bridge programs and guide them through licensing and certification issues.
“Sixty-two percent of service members and veterans are first-generation college students,” says Sara Appel, Multi-State Collaborative on Military Credit (MCMC, an MHEC initiative) project coordinator. “These students tend to need more information on college literacy, including the process of applying, paying for and attending higher education.
“MHEC/MCMC strives to meet the needs of those different types of students by having as much information as possible on resources and points of contact in all 13 MCMC member states; not only in the Guide, but as information on the MCMC web page,” she adds. “MCMC believes that it’s important to have reliable information in more than one place in order to reach our service members and veterans.”
Credit where it’s due
Valuing Military Learning says that the health care and social assistance sector of the U.S. economy is projected to add 3.8 million jobs between 2014 and 2024. Most health care occupations require at least some postsecondary education. Health care careers can often be highly appealing to military-connected individuals who thrived in military jobs such as medic or hospital corpsman.
