In July of 2020, a coalition of national education and veteran advocacy organizations announced four pilot sites, including Indiana Wesleyan University-National & Global, in a grant-funded initiative to help service members and veterans apply their military-based skills and training toward civilian credentials.
This coalition supported the Military Credentialing Advancement Initiative (MCAI). The goal of MCAI was to ensure that service members’ high-quality learning experiences would be fully recognized, counted toward a credential and scaled at a national level.
Each of the four pilot sites leveraged two-year grants valued between $150,000 and $200,000. IWU-National & Global used those funds to build four pathways allowing service members and veterans to apply the skills and credentials they gained during their service toward continued education. This work has directly impacted service members from military occupations comprised of at least 50% Black/African American, Hispanic, Native American, and/or Pacific Islander heritage.
The four pathways IWU developed with the grant are:
- Associate of Science with a major in Operations Management and a specialization in Logistics Management
- Associate of Science with a major in Operations Management and a specialization in Advanced Manufacturing Processes
- Undergraduate Certificate in Human Resource Management
- Non-credit, stackable certificate in Advanced Manufacturing Processes offered on IWU’s Talent Ladder platform
The culmination of this work resulted in Creating Seamless Pathways for Military Service Members: A Scaling Guide published in April 2022 by DVP Praxis, found at: dvp-praxis.org/resources/implementation-and-scale
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, roughly 200,000 veterans enter the civilian workforce each year, and only about 50,000 have the credentials they need to land good jobs with family-sustaining wages. Though the Department of Defense and Uniformed Services have taken steps to remedy this, more than 70% of former servicemen and women still must retrain, requalify or start over in education.
This statistic is especially true for service members of color, who make up 43% of the active-duty force. More than half of our country’s Black, Hispanic and Native American service members are clustered in four occupations that lack clear paths to civilian credentials and jobs: food service, supply administration, combined personnel & administration and warehousing & equipment handling. Lack of recognition for service members’ and veterans’ learning experiences continues to hamper the pursuit of further education and employment.
“IWU-National & Global is committed to making education more accessible for everyone, including the service members and veterans who have served out country,” said KC Haight, executive director of military relations at IWU-National & Global. “We are proud to be part of MCAI, and it’s an honor to help improve the transition to the civilian workforce by building credential programs that account for past experiences and lead to strong employment outcomes. We’re also excited to share what we’ve learned with the larger higher education community to create even more opportunities for those who have selflessly served this nation.”
The MCAI pilot sites were supported by a coalition of five organizations:
- The American Legion
- Ascendium Education Group
- Greater Texas Foundation
- Lumina Foundation
- Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Ascendium’s funding supported a detailed evaluation of the pilot initiative outcomes. The formative evaluation, conducted by independent research firm DVP-Praxis, highlights the lessons MCAI grantees learned as they mapped military competencies and built new credential pathways.
The other MCAI pilot pathways grant recipients were:
- UWUA Power for America Training Trust Fund
- Kansas Board of Regents
- Lone Star College
About MCAI
The Military Credentialing Advancement Initiative (MCAI) supports the development of new pathways to credentials for servicemembers and veterans. MCAI’s goal is to recommend principles and guidelines that credential providers should follow to ensure that all verified, validated military-based learning counts toward high-quality civilian credentials.
About Indiana Wesleyan University
Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) is a Christian comprehensive university of The Wesleyan Church that is committed to global liberal arts and professional education. The university system includes IWU-Marion, where about 3,000 students are enrolled in traditional programs on the main campus in Marion, Ind.; IWU-National & Global, which includes more than 9,000 adult learners throughout the world who study online or onsite at education centers in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio; and Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, which offers a practical and student-centered approach for busy, working ministers. IWU’s DeVoe School of Business, the School of Nursing, the School of Health Sciences, the School of Educational Leadership, the School of Service and Leadership, and the Division of Liberal Arts are all housed within the National and Global campus. More information is available at www.indwes.edu.