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Washington - The army, hoping to reduce a major barrier to recruiting and retaining talented young people, will announce today a new education program to help millions of soldiers earn college degrees and technical certificates through a global system of online learning. As envisioned by Army leaders, the new system will offer educational opportunities from a diverse consortium of colleges, universities and technical schools linked by computers. Soldiers will be provided computers, printers and Internet access. Funds also will be available for textbooks and fees. New policies will make it easier for soldier-students to enroll, transfer credits and meet degree requirements. In addition, Army officials said, students will be assigned coaches to provide career guidance and academic support. "Army university Access On-Line," with a six-year cost of $550 million, is designed to enable a new recruit or a veteran soldier to earn a college degree within four years during active enlistment. And because the system will be built around "distance learning," students will be able to do class work from schools of their own choosing no matter where they are stationed, even during peace-keeping deployments in places like Bosnia. The program, which officials hope to have up and running at two or three pilot sites - serving 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers - by early next year, is aimed at countering a widespread concern among potential recruits and their parents that they face a choice between serving in the military and pursuing higher education. "What we want to do is make it so it's not an either/or choice. you can learn while you serve," Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera said. The Army also hopes that the opportunity to earn degrees while in the service will encourage the best and brightest to stay in uniform longer. In today's era of rising prosperity, greater competition for talent in the job market and increased emphasis on advanced education in the United States, the armed forces have faced mounting difficulty in keeping their ranks filled with high-quality volunteers. Last year, the Army fell about 6,300 short of its goal of 74,000 new recruits and ended the year at full strength only because of an unusually large number of re-enlistments. Meeting this year's targets is expected to be equally difficult, and similar problems have plagued the Navy and Air Force. In recent years, the different branches of the military have tried to woo able recruits by offering programs similar to the old GI Bill, providing money for education after military service. But such incentives have lost some of their appeal as scholarships and student loans have become more widely available. And even if the promise of financial aid draws some recruits into service, the best of them tend to leave as soon as they can to reap the promised reward. So the Army has revamped and retargeted its recruitment strategy. Programs have been launched to help recruits who dropped out of high school earn equivalency certificates and pursue other educational opportunities. By: Richard T. Cooper - of the Los Angeles Times | |
Army Offers GIs Online Education
