5 Reasons to Earn a Certification While on Active Duty.
Stop waiting until your transition to invest in yourself. No one respects the butter bar.
Ok, now that I have your attention, let's talk about why you should invest in your professional development throughout your military career, instead of thinking of certifications only as a way to improve your transition out of the military.
First, let's think about who we respect in uniform. Do you respect the newbie or the grey beard? Why? Credibility comes not only with training but years of experience under our belts. Now I know you may think, "I won’t have any civilian experience," and you are correct, but you will have parallel experience that not only lets you apply for certifications now, but will also translate into future job credibility.
Who would you rather hire or work with on your team?
Person A | Person B |
Certified professional | Uncertified |
Years of experience | No experience |
Demonstrated past performance | Irrelevant work history |
Can relate to your needs | Cannot relate to your needs |
Culture alignment | Culture misalignment |
Most veterans want to rely on their rank and military experience, so they drop themselves into the Person B column and add a lot of stress to an already stressful, ill-trained process called transition.
This is why you should invest in yourself 3-5 years out. It might even increase your promotability and further your military career.
5 Reasons to Certify on Active Duty.
Promotability.
Earning professional certifications in project management may directly impact your promotability or give you skills that improve your ability to execute your mission. Just-in-Time Logistics, Condition-Based Maintenance, Unit readiness, Equipment modifications, equipment readiness increases, exercise planning, deployment planning, product development, and many other tasks we execute every day will be enhanced by training in project management to include Lean Six Sigma, Agile, PMP®, and Change Management. For some services, you can earn a secondary skill identifier or promotion points.
Air Force: If you earn your PMP® or PMI-ACP® (Agile) certification, you qualify for the 9IA
Innovation Project Manager SEI code.
Army: Every Soldier who is up for E-5 or E-6 can earn up to 50 promotion points for
earning technical certifications as outlined by DoD Cool.
Ten promotion points for each awarded technical certification. Look for the icon to the right in Army Cool. https://www.cool.osd.mil/army/index.html
A maximum of 50 promotion points are authorized for technical certifications
No additional promotion points are authorized for recertification
Promotion points will be awarded under civilian education on the DA Form 3355; those who earn their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt can work on process improvement projects and apply for the 1X ASI
In the AR-600 series, professional development guidance and specific credentialing recommendations are primarily detailed in DA Pam 600–3 (Commissioned Officer Professional Development and Career Management) and DA Pam 600–25 (NCO Professional Development Guide). The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is explicitly listed and heavily encouraged for professional development within the following specific branches and career fields:
Engineer Branch (EN): Both DA Pam 600-3 and associated branch smartbooks highly encourage Engineer Officers (and 120A Warrant Officers) to pursue the PMP® alongside the Professional Engineer (PE) license. Every 12 series officer can earn the P6 ASI for earning their Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification. All enlisted personnel are now “Highly promotable” for earning it.
Acquisition Corps (FA 51): While governed by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), PMP® alignment is foundational for program managers within Acquisition.
Adjutant General (AG) Corps: The PMP® is actively listed as an encouraged professional certification for broadening skills within AG career management, and PMP®, Agile, and Lean Six Sigma, along with Change management, are specifically called out as skills for a Force Manager.
Civil Affairs (CMF 38): NCO professional development guides outline the PMP® as an encouraged professional certification for senior NCOs to develop strategic planning and administrative capabilities.
Transportation Branch: DA PAM 600-3 lists PMP® and Lean Six Sigma as educational goals from 2 years in service and beyond.
Funding Availability to Earn Certifications While on Active Duty
https://www.pm-prolearn.com/funding-options
One of the biggest reasons to earn certifications while on active duty is access to federal funding programs to pay for everything. These programs drop off once you transition. AF COOL, Army Credential Assistance, and Coast Guard COOL all pay for training and exam fees toward certifications. These programs also cover maintenance and renewal fees.
AF COOL: $4,500 for Active Duty Enlisted Airmen (or reserve and Guard on active title 10 or title 32 orders)
Army CA: Every enlisted and warrant officer soldier (All Compos) gets $2k every FY for training and exams. Soldiers can pursue 3 certs for every 10 years of service, and this number compounds. This means that after 11 years you could earn 6 certifications, and after 20 years you could earn 9. Here is the catch. You can only get ONE PER YEAR. This means that if you are at year 18 and plan to retire at 20, you just threw away $8k in free benefits. If you are in year 21 and plan to retire at 23, you threw away $14k. No Service obligation. And no risk. One quick rule of thumb: at every PME/leadership school, look into a certification. Lean Six Sigma, Agile, PMP, Change Management. Every few years, take another course. Additional learning helps maintain your certs. Army pays for renewal fees as well.
USCG COOL: Every active-duty Coast Guard member and government civilian gets $ 4,500 every year to pay for training and exams for DoD COOL-approved certs.
MyCAA: Every Active enlisted and junior officer spouse has a $4k grant through the Spouse Employment and Career Opportunity program (MySECO) that pays for certifications. This program completely stops when you transition. If you are Guard or Reserve, once you are active on Title 10 or Title 32, your spouse now qualifies. PMP, Agile, CAPM, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt are all covered.
SF-182 and Unit funding: Every organization in the federal gov’t can use Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding to pay for commercial off-the-shelf training (COTS). Training funding, TDY funds, etc. From the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), setting the date and location is not “tailored” and does not require a contract. Price per student is limited to $25,000.
GI BILL: Many members don’t realize that you can actually use your Post 9/11 GI BILL while still in uniform to cover educational expenses. Keep in mind that you will not get BAH in addition to tuition. When it comes to paying for certification prep courses, you don’t get BAH anyway, since these are shorter than one month and use less than one month of your benefits.
Maintenance Fees Covered
One of the biggest reasons I hear folks wait is that they don’t want to maintain or renew a certification while they are in uniform. What most don’t realize is that the fees to maintain a cert come from the same funding sources that pay for you to earn it in the first place.
Cert maintenance is one reason certs stay relevant. In a Skills-based economy or when using a skills-based hiring process, they are good to earn. Unlike degrees, they require you to keep your skills current. From a military standpoint, the renewal fees are all covered.
Job Credibility
One of the biggest errors when considering certifications is that they will matter more if we earn them at the very end. This logic flies in the face of everything we know in the military. The new recruit, the new officer, the new graduate, is often respected for their achievement, but not respected for their maturity. Certifications are similar, much like team or corporate past performance. I would much rather hire a professional who has demonstrated their value over time and can show me what they have been doing. This professional “seasoning” happens when you apply what you learn by earning a certification.
For example, earning your Lean Six Sigma Green Belt shows you have the skills and competence. Running organizational improvement projects after you earn the cert validates your expertise and shows quantifiable proof of your skills and mindset.
Earning a PMP® and then changing how you execute in uniform, while showing the impact of your leadership, is much more impactful. Being able to articulate the quantifiable proof of your decision-making and how you have added value to your organization is a much greater selling point when you transition.
Additionally, many veterans are unfamiliar with the corporate world and make assumptions about what they really want to do. Because we lack cultural and corporate knowledge, training in certifications can either rapidly validate or invalidate your potential career move. Learning will occur, certified or not.
Specific to project management, our foundation in military planning is a HUGE differentiator.
Training and certification in Lean Six Sigma, Agile, PMP®, and change management add a breadth of capability you can apply to any job in any industry. Like military planning, it's not specific to one specialty; it's used by all specialties, in all branches, and in every type of unit.
Being a Certified Project Manager means you are a professional. It does NOT mean you have to only seek titles in project management. For example, I saw a job as an Organizational Transformation and Change Specialist, but the required certs were a Project Management or Change Management Certification and Lean Six Sigma.
Degree Credit for Certifications Earned
Ending the debate on whether I should get a degree or Certification first: Certification!!! More and more colleges and universities are giving degree credit for certified professionals. From 6 to 12 credits. In one week, you could be earning 6 bachelor's credits through our partnership with Norwich University. In one month, you can earn your certification (PMP®) and then earn up to 12 credits toward a bachelor's with American Military University or possibly waive 2 to 4 courses (6 to 12 credits) toward a master’s degree. AMU, Purdue Global, LSU, Central Michigan, and many others offer MBA credits for a PMP® and other certifications. One month of GI Bill and a certification could save you 5 months of GI BILL benefits. 1 month of focus could save you 6 months to a year of college. I would take a 5x or 6x return any day.
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