The Army is boosting tuition assistance and cutting funds available for professional credentialing for active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers. (Nell King/U.S. Army)
The Army this week announced sharp cuts to a program that gives financial assistance to soldiers obtaining industry credentials while giving a boost to its tuition assistance initiative.
The new guidance, issued Tuesday, includes an increase of $500 and two semester hours for tuition assistance but halves the annual cap for the credentialing assistance program.
Launched in 2020, the credentialing program allows troops to pursue education in hundreds of fields ranging from private pilot licenses for single-engine aircraft to security, personal training and technical trades.
The decrease in support for credentialing programs from a maximum cap of $4,000 to $2,000 annually was prompted by concerns that it was becoming financially unsustainable, the Army said in a statement Tuesday.
“When you have a program increase exponentially over a four-year period, you are eventually going to blow your budget to the point where it won’t be available to anyone,” Christine Traugott, a policy manager at the Army’s office for manpower and reserve affairs, said in the statement.
The cost of the credentialing program has nearly doubled every year, Traugott said.
The average cost of a credential is $1,700 and soldiers take an average of 1.5 credentials a year, according to the Army.
Regarding tuition assistance, the annual cap goes from $4,000 to $4,500 and increases the annually allowed semester hours from 16 to 18.
Soldiers who took to social media to comment on the changes said the reduction could make it more difficult to get some sought-after credits, such as those needed by mechanics seeking Automotive Service Excellence certificates.
Other critics questioned whether scaling the popular program back would hurt recruitment and retention efforts inside the Army.
Next year, the Army will formalize the changes with a new regulation, which will exclude commissioned officers from using credentialing assistance and require command approval for both tuition and credentialing assistance requests.
In addition, soldiers will be limited to one credential a year and a maximum of three in 10 years. They will have to take the exam associated with the credential or recoup the cost of the course. Aviation credentials will max out at $1,000 per year for all Army components.
The changes will bring the Army into closer alignment with the other services and preserve the benefits for soldiers who need them the most, Traugott said.
