Colleges grant credits for life experiences in an effort to attract students and enrollments.
Recognising Real-world Skills: The Shift Towards Awarding Credit for Military and Work Experience
Colleges and universities across the United States, including those in Pittsburgh, are making significant changes to their policies, aiming to award academic credit for military and work experience. This trend is particularly beneficial for veterans and working adults, enabling them to convert their hard-earned skills into academic credit, thus reducing the time and cost to complete degrees.
In Pittsburgh, the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is at the forefront of this transformation, led by Stephen Wells, its provost, who is involved in a citywide project to help students transform their military and work experience into academic credits. This approach mirrors a growing national movement to accept prior learning credits more readily and thoroughly [1][5].
The complex, slow, and expensive processes associated with awarding credit for prior learning have long been a challenge for colleges, with only around 10% of students completing them. However, efforts are underway to simplify and promote these credits, particularly benefiting low-income learners and those who started but never completed degrees [1].
These policy changes offer several advantages:
- Cost and Time Savings: By awarding credit for relevant experience, students can significantly reduce their tuition costs and the time it takes to complete a degree [1][2].
- Increased Accessibility: Recognising the expertise of veterans and working adults encourages them to return to education, acknowledging their skills as valuable [1][5].
- Employer Partnerships: Institutions are forming partnerships with employers and military organisations to provide tuition discounts and credit for corporate or military training, as seen at institutions like DeVry University [2].
- State Benefits: State-specific military benefits, such as Pennsylvania’s Education Assistance Program (EAP), which cover tuition and technology fees for National Guard members enrolled in approved programs, complement academic credit initiatives [3].
These changes aim to improve college completion rates, accelerate careers, and reduce educational costs for students with prior work or military experience.
As the number of 18-year-old high school graduates declines nationwide, including in Pennsylvania [4], getting at least some of the nearly 38 million working-age Americans who have spent some time in college but never finished [5] to come back has become essential for higher education institutions.
Programmes like the one at CCAC, as well as initiatives at Thomas Edison offering up to 30 credits for police academy graduates towards associate degrees [6], are part of this solution. However, many students, especially low-income learners, don't even attempt to get credit for prior learning [7].
To address this, some institutions, states, systems, and independent companies are standardising the evaluation of skills that someone learns in life and equate to academic courses or programs [8]. For example, the University of Memphis collaborates with FedEx to provide academic credit for supervisory training towards a degree in organisational leadership [9].
The University of North Carolina System has also launched its Military Equivalency System, allowing active-duty and former military service members to find out about academic credit possibilities before applying for admission [10]. Their goal is to retain military personnel with valuable skill sets instead of them moving to other states.
In conclusion, the shift towards awarding credit for military and work experience is a significant step towards leveraging life skills academically, offering a cost-effective and expedited pathway to degrees. This benefits both students and institutions by making education more accessible and affordable for those with prior work or military experience [1][5].
- The efforts towards recognizing military and work experience for academic credit can foster personal growth and learning, as seen in the transformation of veterans and working adults at institutions like the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Pittsburgh.
- Higher education institutions, such as DeVry University, are forming partnerships with employers and military organizations to provide tuition discounts and credit for corporate or military training, promoting education-and-self-development for a workforce that already possesses valuable skills.
- The ongoing standardization of the evaluation of life skills, like the University of Memphis's collaboration with FedEx for supervisory training credit, can bridge the inequality gap, offering opportunities for underrepresented learners, such as low-income students, to pursue higher education in their fields of expertise.
- As the traditional career pathway of high school graduates to higher education becomes less common, innovation in education like awarding credit for military and work experience becomes crucial for workforce development, enabling lifelong learners to advance their careers and contribute to society by obtaining higher education degrees.
