Navy Learning Centers offer double incentives for learning
by Nikki Noah
PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS) is the latest command to receive recommended college credits for its training.

The American Council on Education (ACE) completed its review of course work in June for the CSCS Unit Great Lakes, Ill., for courses that were new or had gone through a revision since the last ACE review.

"ACE provides leadership and a unified voice on key higher education issues," said James Selbe, the assistant vice president of the ACE Center for Lifelong Learning. "Together, ACE member institutions serve eighty percent of today's college students."

The Navy invests considerable time and manpower to foster professional relationships with outside agencies with the focus of benefiting the lives of its Sailors.

"CSCS works to be the cornerstone of surface warfare operational capability," said Capt. Stephen Hampton, CSCS commanding officer. "We achieve this vision through an investment in the training, mentoring and education of our Sailors to maintain, operate and fight their ships…and win…in support or defense of our nation's interests."

All learning centers within the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) work with ACE to specifically promote the educational goals of its Sailors. ACE provides an additional benefit to military education by recommending academic credits for course work and/or occupational experience.

"The purpose of the Navy's relationship with ACE is to provide recommendations for civilian-equivalent academic credits based on ACE's evaluations of Navy training courses and service occupations or experience," said Roland Perez, NETC's educational program and management analyst. "These credits can then be transferred from the military training environment to the civilian academic environment."

"The review and award of equivalent college credits promotes access to and success in higher education," said Becky Phaler, business analyst supervisor for CSCS at the center's headquarters in Dahlgren, Va. "The credit value recommended to our courses helps our Sailors obtain their college degrees."

A nongovernmental organization, ACE is contracted by the Department of Defense to provide its services to the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps through its Military Evaluations Program established in 1945.

"The Military Evaluations Program brings together teams of college and university faculty to review formal military skills training courses and occupational experiences to determine collegiate-level learning outcomes," said Selbe. "These learning outcomes are then articulated as academic credit and communicated to more than 2,800 colleges and universities."

Since 1954, ACE has evaluated more than 35,000 military courses and occupations for college credits. A slim number of courses are not recommended credits due to their unique military nature, but almost all are found to have application in the civilian world.

"Most, if not all, Navy training courses and occupational specialties that meet ACE's requirement have either been recommended for academic credits or are in the process of being evaluated for recommendation of credits," said Perez. "It is safe to say that NETC alone has thousands of training courses with ACE-recommended credits spread across all our learning sites."

The process of being evaluated for possible college credit begins with the ACE coordinator at a learning center to determine if a particular course is eligible. In order to be eligible, a training course must be 45 academic hours or longer in length, have an approved implementation date and have all required course documentation. Once a course is recognized as eligible, ACE begins the evaluation process.

"Those courses meeting ACE's requirements are submitted for consideration. ACE then determines whether a course may be evaluated in-house by ACE staff or through an on-site visit," said Perez.

Newly developed or significantly revised training courses are normally evaluated by ACE faculty during an on-site visit.

A learning site visit takes an average of three days to complete. During that time, civilian academic professionals, who have relevant subject matter expertise, review the training course in its entirety and reach a consensus on the course's application to the post-secondary learning environment.

"A comprehensive educational and training history of a member while serving in the Navy is annotated in their Sailor/Marine ACE Registry Transcript (SMART)," said Perez. Sailors should refer to their SMART when establishing their educational or career plans. Additionally, ACE credit recommendations are published online in the ACE Guide. The guide is used by counselors at the Navy College Office (NCO) as the standard reference in educational counseling for both active duty personnel and veterans."

Navy training courses and service-acquired occupational experiences may be recommended for academic credits on four levels (vocational-certificate, associate/lower division baccalaureate degree, upper division baccalaureate, and graduate degree). The life span of credit recommendation is 10 years, after which the particular training course or occupation (if still active) must be re-evaluated. The number of academic credits that may be recommended by ACE depends upon the training course's content or service occupation's value and relevance to similar civilian academic courses or equivalent civilian job skills.

"A total of fifteen courses were reviewed within CSCS with a total of seventy-seven lower division credits recommended and six vocational credits recommended. This is an increase of ten credits since the previous review," said Phaler.

"CSCS has 201 courses that have recommended academic credits through ACE. These courses have a combined 809 lower division credits, twenty-one upper division credits and four vocational credits that could be awarded," explains Steve Wohlman, senior consulting analyst at CSCS.

According to Perez, the importance of vigilance by ACE program coordinators at each learning center and their related learning sites cannot be overemphasized since it affects whether the recommended academic credits for courses and occupations will continue to have their validity or not.

"We at CSCS believe the increase of recommended academic credits for our training command is directly attributed to the hard work and improvements CSCS Unit Great Lakes instructors have made in teaching processes, Integrated Learning Environment content or updating labs for schools," said Hampton.

There is an inaccurate belief among some that the credits provided by ACE are guaranteed or absolute. ACE only provides recommendations when it comes to academic credits. Although, they may be accepted by many colleges and universities throughout the country, it is still the prerogative of the educational institutions to impose their own policies and requirements when working with individual students.

"Different institutions vary with their interpretations on the number of academic credits that may be accepted for a specific educational track," explained Perez.

"Sailors are strongly encouraged to communicate with prospective civilian schools when making plans or researching their educational goals."

While the Navy works to foster the relationship with ACE, it is ultimately up to the Sailor to take full advantage of this benefit.

"ACE provides direct and specific service to our service members by providing them a venue by which they may transfer the training and experiences they gained in the Navy to civilian post-secondary schools, colleges or universities of their choice," said Perez. "This capability translates into money, time and energy saved - valuable resources that the service members do not need to repeatedly expend when they attend civilian schools."

The Navy's partnership with ACE is just one of the many ways the Navy accomplishes its mission and helps Sailors reach their educational goals.

"The Navy, as a voluntary organization asserts its validity as an 'employer of choice'," said Perez. "One of the most significant attractions that the Navy shows for prospective members is the significance of its educational and training programs as well as the applicability of occupational experiences gained during service.

"To take care of our people who take care of our mission is to provide them with relevant, dynamic, and effective educational and training opportunities that meet the multifaceted challenges that the Navy consistently faces," added Perez. "If it is important to the Sailor, it is important to the Navy."