Question

I3BrigPvSk

The Viking
I am pondering, in the U.S., Canada, and the UK. When you are in the service or rather after the service. Will the governments pay for your education (civilian), such as a bachelor degree, or something similar?
 
In the US we have what is called the "GI Bill". The latest one pays for college up to 25,000 dollars (USD) per semester on top of a housing allowance. But, you have to pay "into" the GI bill, it's only 100 a month for the first year you're in the service.

The old GI Bill was a set amount that would be paid directly to you as long as you were enrolled in school. Also, a lot of times recruiters will throw in "incentives" to prospective recruits by adding what's called the Army college fund...it just adds on to the regular GI Bill after one decides to use it. When I joined the GI bill was something like 28,000 dollars for college which would have been paind out over 36 months. I also recieved the 50,000 dollar Army college fund which just added 22,000 dollars to my GI Bill. When I got out the GI bill had gone up to 36,000 dollars, so they just added the 22,000 dollars to that making it 58,000. Bottom line, while I was in college I made about 1650.00 a month while I was in school. I could use it how I wanted as long as I took 12 or more credit hours and maintained at least 12 credit hours every semester.
 
In the US we have what is called the "GI Bill". The latest one pays for college up to 25,000 dollars (USD) per semester on top of a housing allowance. But, you have to pay "into" the GI bill, it's only 100 a month for the first year you're in the service.

The old GI Bill was a set amount that would be paid directly to you as long as you were enrolled in school. Also, a lot of times recruiters will throw in "incentives" to prospective recruits by adding what's called the Army college fund...it just adds on to the regular GI Bill after one decides to use it. When I joined the GI bill was something like 28,000 dollars for college which would have been paind out over 36 months. I also recieved the 50,000 dollar Army college fund which just added 22,000 dollars to my GI Bill. When I got out the GI bill had gone up to 36,000 dollars, so they just added the 22,000 dollars to that making it 58,000. Bottom line, while I was in college I made about 1650.00 a month while I was in school. I could use it how I wanted as long as I took 12 or more credit hours and maintained at least 12 credit hours every semester.

Thank you,

I have an idea, I am very pro-education. I have spent many years in the academic world. Therefore, I am not able to answer a question with a Yes or No. I always elaborate my answers.

I pondering about the service men (women) In the US you can go to school after your time, I offer it to all not only the people from the service, but do not waste my time. I really urge you all to do educate yourself. We have a recession ongoing right now. Many people world wide are suffering from it, with the result, they are forced to leave their homes etc.

I have a good knowledge about many different educations. I also have a good knowledge about the different college and universities in the US. Some educations at the universities and college are a waste of time. History can be a waste of time, the labor market is quite limited. Most of them are working in the academic field, at the universities, which require a PhD. Some are working in the museums, and Think Tanks.


I can also check the labor market for each education in the US. I can do that in a few seconds, in Canada, only BC and Ontario for the moment, and I cannot promise to help the Canadians, until I know if Canada has the same thing as the US. The same thing for the UK.

I have some concerns about the people from the service. The civilian world does not care about your military skills. If you are using it, the law enforcement agencies will be quite upset. The civilian world will appriciate the dicipline, ablility to work in a team, and the leadership training. But it will not be enough, and today with the unemployment figures....education may help you to get a good life as a civilian, becouse some day you will return to the civilian world and it is much better if you can offer that world something.

if you are thinking about the PMCs, their market has started to show a decline, not economically, rather politically. You can blame Blackwater for it, the other types of PMCs are increasing their activity. However, they are more a market for analysts and language specialists, which require a different kind of education, good examples are Booz-Allen Hamilton, CIAC, and others.

So if you ponder an education, do not hesitate to drop me a line.

I want you to put up two questions for yourself.

1. What am I good at? Go back to the High school years and ask yourself what you liked there (not military skills)

2. From Q1. when you have figured the first one out. Ask what do I want to do after the service?
 
In the Canadian Forces, there are several programs available to get/finish an education, most of which are subsidized by the CF. I couldn't tell you exactly which ones, but there are several available. I'm not sure about 'after service programs' though, so I couldn't really tell you anything about those.
 
I'm no expert but I'll do some background research into the British Forces.

From my limited knowledge I know that currently the British forces aren't exactly generous for ex-servicemen. Not only is the pay very poor for enlisted men when your in the forces but the 'perks' afterwards aren't exactly great either. Though this is being changed. Nothing is set either. If you had a family you would get more financial and housing help than you would if you were single. But I'll look into it for you. Though if you want to do your own research a good site to try would be www.armyjobs.mod.uk.
 
History degrees ARE pretty useless....unless one is going to become a commissioned officer in a military service!

I have a BA in History....I should have got a BS in education for History instead...only about 2 more semesters of work and I could have actually taught...oh well...I guess I'll just have to get a masters now.

I also forgot that if you attend college while in the Army they pay for all schooling. Hard to do...but if you can pull off school and active duty it's a pretty good deal.
 
History degrees ARE pretty useless....unless one is going to become a commissioned officer in a military service!

I have a BA in History....I should have got a BS in education for History instead...only about 2 more semesters of work and I could have actually taught...oh well...I guess I'll just have to get a masters now.

I also forgot that if you attend college while in the Army they pay for all schooling. Hard to do...but if you can pull off school and active duty it's a pretty good deal.


History is an interesting subject, its a part of many other educations, I have it in both IR and Political Science, mostly post-WWII. In Europe, we can mention a bit about the 30-years war, after that war the first steps were taken to create the national state as we know it today.

I am sorry to hear you regret your line of education, with a Master you might can get a teacher job anyway. This is a good example of what I want to help you all with so this does not happen
To be a teacher would be a great job for many ex-service men.

I have worked as a mentor for teens, (17-20) we had many discussions about different educations and the different options for each individual, even discussions about not directly academic educations. I can have similar discussions here. I have friends in the US and parts of Canada, they are academics (social science and health care) and I will ask them as well.

in an abstract form, we can say college and universities are divided into two-three different areas. Social science, which is what we construct in our minds. The relations between humans and how we interact and organize ourselfs in the society, even at an individual level. Here we found history, political science, behaviorism, sociology, anthropology, economy and many others.
To define what is what can be tricky, many interact with each other, where one department ends and the next begins.
The health care and with all kind of educations and jobs within that field, some can be more natural in its approach and others more connected to the social science. MDs, nurses, para-medics, micro-biologists, epidemiologists, etc etc. If you are a medic/corpsman you are more or less a nurse or a paramedic already.

The Natural science, this include biology, chemistry, geography, geology, and many many more. Each department can be divided further down. My favorite, which I pondered to study is seismology, belong to the geology. In the US, the best places to study this is the West Coast and Hawaii, due to the subduction zone and the "Hot Spot." BC in Canada is another good place for this. In Europe, I would say Italy and Iceland. I would guess NZ and Australia are two other places for this as well. However, I do not know anything about the education systems and such there. Many biologists´are very interested of these two places. Many animals are very unique in Oz and NZ. Especially, herpatologists´(snake, lizard, frog, etc) seems to like AUS.



G
 
I love the history, it's not as useless as I made out in my line of work. I'll have to get a Masters degree at some point in the next few years if I plan on getting promoted past Captain.

Teaching is definitely something I will consider once my time in the Army is done, yet, that's a number of years away so I imagine I'll cross that road when I get to it. Eventually, I'd like to make my way up to a Doctorate and teach at the University level...We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
 
I love the history, it's not as useless as I made out in my line of work. I'll have to get a Masters degree at some point in the next few years if I plan on getting promoted past Captain.

Teaching is definitely something I will consider once my time in the Army is done, yet, that's a number of years away so I imagine I'll cross that road when I get to it. Eventually, I'd like to make my way up to a Doctorate and teach at the University level...We'll just have to wait and see what happens.


I love history as well, its not completely useless, but it must be connected to something else. For an officer its good, but you have many other things as well in your education to be an officer and making a career as one. Have you checked the National Defense University? Great for a Master and then later a Doctorate. The problem with history is if somebody ponder a major in it.

http://www.ndu.edu/

G
 
Well, what I can add is that you can create much if you dont have a very good knowledge about the past.

When you study history, in fact, you study the future. And I'm not just talking about the events that might repeat themselves...

But the thing is that you cant teach people things you dont already know... You cant teach someone to be creative... You cant teach someone to make new stuff...

All you can do is teach him how people made new stuff out of nothing, or using the ideas of someone else... It's how the human brain works to make new stuff...

Anyways... I fully support education, it's the way to go. The military should invest more in education and I saw BEFORE the service, not after...

I dont know about you guys, but I'm tired to see 18 year old kids in battle... That is just depressing...
 
Well, what I can add is that you can create much if you dont have a very good knowledge about the past.

When you study history, in fact, you study the future. And I'm not just talking about the events that might repeat themselves...

But the thing is that you cant teach people things you dont already know... You cant teach someone to be creative... You cant teach someone to make new stuff...

All you can do is teach him how people made new stuff out of nothing, or using the ideas of someone else... It's how the human brain works to make new stuff...

Anyways... I fully support education, it's the way to go. The military should invest more in education and I saw BEFORE the service, not after...

I dont know about you guys, but I'm tired to see 18 year old kids in battle... That is just depressing...

The majority of all college and university educations are focused upon devolopment of ideas. To take an old idea and add things to it. The devolopment of the military theories can be used as an example. if we take Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Machiavelli. They had ideas and theories about the war. Then you add your ideas, as many have done before you, and then we have devoloped the theories, another good example is to use Darwin and his ideas of evolution, he started something and many other scientists have added to the theory. Each step will be small, but the outcome can be huge. The engineers, they are really good with this devolopment. When they are going through their education, they learn about what is known today. Then they add, new ideas. We can take a look at the computers, the internet, the cell phones, and other fields the latest 20 years. They use not only other ideas, they devolop them.

History is interesting, but to make a living out of it is not easy today. if you are working as an officer, its part of the job. If you work as an analyst, its also a part of the job. if you are watching the History Channel, they people in the documentary, where are they from? They are PHDs, or more from the universities. As the officer in this thread said, he regreted the BA in history, it had been better with a BS. In the US and Canada, they are giving something back to the service men. I am sorry about the British, and when they are increasing the price for the students. Its so bad. You have protected the country and put yourself in the line of fire...at least the Gov of UK could pay for their education.

I can see a lot of problems to have the education of a BA or BS before the service. The education must be fresh, and not a few years old. If a service man is an engineer, and remove him or her for about x- amount of years. Then he or she would have problem when he returns. To have 18 year old kids to fight, is a problem. Perhaps not accept them until they are 20-21.

G
 
Part of a veterans benefits package includes educational opportunities and support.
It changes from time to time, but the military makes it very clear what one's entitlements are.
Ideally folks are given a lot of information on this as part of their out processing.
 
Well, I believe that in Canada, they dont have to.

As you have free health care and free education for everybody... Not?
 
in the uk there is a very good organization called force select, this enables the transition from service life to employment & training in civilian life and the world of employment
 
in the uk there is a very good organization called force select, this enables the transition from service life to employment & training in civilian life and the world of employment


And an education can be a part of this force select? UK has many good schools. For studies of terrorism, the University of Birmingham, St. Andrews, works well too. Chatham House for economy and political science, and or course Oxford and Cambridge. Manchester has a nice one too, I have been told so anyway
The price for each semester increased a lot. So if the Gov in UK is paying for your education, do it!

G
 
force select

it concentrates mainly on real world skills,learning a civilian trade.if academic skills required then online & correspondence courses are widely available, open university etc
 
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