Advantages of attending College while in the Military - Research Paper Example

Benefits of Attending College While Serving in Military Introduction Once individuals serve in the military forces and get off from their military assignments, they return back home only to realize that after facing deadly situations they are not looked upon as full of worth. When veterans return from their military duty, they end up experiencing huge number of issues and on issue that tops the list is their failure to get jobs. There are several reasons due to which they fail to gain employment including: lack of college level degree, issues with cognitive health and failure to socialize with others in the society.

Even if veterans are able to get jobs, these jobs either do not pay well or these jobs do not stand up to the expectations of the veterans. When they fail to gain satisfactory employment or even any form of employment at all, they experience increased mental issues and dissatisfaction from life. During the period of 2012, BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) states that the number of unemployed veterans in the region of United States of America totaled to 0.8 million individuals during the period of June (BLS 1).

The main problem faced by these veterans is that most of them did not obtain education before being a part of the military and when they returned from military work they failed to gain employment because of lack of education. One Solution to this issue is gaining education while serving the armed forces. Body One of the major advantage that one can attain due to attending college while he/she is serving with the military is the low cost of education that is hardly experienced by those who are not serving and by the civilian population of the nation.

The cost of attaining higher level education is increasing day by day and individuals who are actively working in the army can benefit from the various programs that are in place to educate the army officials while they serve. One such program is the Active Duty Montgomery G.I. Bill, in this program an army official who is pursuing educational while working with the forces has to get $100 reduced from his/her salary for each month for a period of 2 years and while he/she serves, all of the tuition fees and the college fees is reimbursed by the government under the Active Duty Montgomery G.I. Bill (gibill 1).

This means that by just investing $1200 a military official can obtain college level education which costs thousands of dollars. According to the statistics of 2010, the average cost of attending a community college in the region of United States of America was $2,500 (Ghosh 75). Some of the individual serving with the military tend to use this program later on after they have completed their duty and as the veteran they are paid more under this bill. Another major benefit that active duty individuals can attain by gaining education while on duty is that they can work and continue their learning at the same time.

They do not need to travel to universities and colleges to gain education; instead these universities and colleges come to them and educate them. All the military bases have a department of education even recognized as Education office and these offices are used to provide face to face education to those military officials who aim at getting education while serving the army (Bourne 75). These courses are attended by active duty participants while they are off from duty, usually during evening sessions and weekends.

These programs are similar in nature to studying in traditional classrooms and the benefits offered by students of traditional classroom can even be accessed by military students. For example: military students can interact on face to face basis with the instructor and can gain help in understanding course material. These programs can even help them in developing time management skills as these programs take place at a particular time and students have to follow the schedule. These programs can even help them in developing essential skills such as communication skills that are considered as necessary skills by employers of different organizations.

The issue with this program is that different bases have different schedules of operations and in certain bases, individuals do not get enough time to attend such classes as they are serving most of the time. These bases do not have a set schedule and members of these bases are called for duty whenever they are needed. The issue of irregular base schedules has even been solved with the assistance of distance learning programs for students who are actively serving in the military. Several universities that offer online education to civilian students even offer online education to students who are actively participating in the military.

Military even has a program to help students in attaining distance learning, military offers a laptop to active duty participants for this purpose (Baker 100). These laptops are only awarded to those students who have enlisted themselves in one of the several online education providing universities. These distance learning programs offer several benefits to active duty participants. These benefits include: attaining education whenever the military official wishes to and he/she does not need to be dependent on an instructor for instructions and he/she does not need to follow a strict schedule to attain education.

The main benefit associated with these educational programs for active military service providers is that once their military service period is over, they can get a handsome job when they return back home and can avoid the difficulties experienced by veterans. Conclusion There are several number of army veterans who do not have a job because they have no college level education and to solve this problem, army officials should gain education while serving the armed forces. The benefits associated with attaining education while serving is that the cost of education is covered by the government, education can be attained to gain skills and abilities that are highly preferred by employers.

References Baker, Anni P.. Life in the U.S. Armed Forces: (not) just another job. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2008. Print. Bourne, John R., and Janet C. Moore. Elements of quality online education: practice and direction. Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium, 2003. Print. Ghosh, Tushar K., and Mark Antonio Prelas. Energy resources and systems. Dordrecht: Springer, 20092011. Print. Table A-5. Employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service, and sex, not seasonally adjusted ." U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. . Welcome to the GI Bill Web Site | The Home for All Educational Benefits Provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs." Welcome to the GI BillA® Web Site | The Home for All Educational Benefits Provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. .