The awesome aspect of civilian education promotion points is the absolute control you have to earn every single point available.
There are multiple paths you can take to earn the 135 (E-5) to 160 (E-6) points available to you, but the fact remains that it’s your call!
Pathways to Civilian Education Promotion Points
From the very simple to more complex, here are some ways to begin earning civilian education promotion points:
- Traditional in resident college credits, measured in semester hours
- Successfully completing general and subject examinations within the College Level Examination Program (CLEP)
- Successfully completing subject standardized tests within the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) program
- Completing your degree while on active duty
- Achieving one or more (up to 5) technical certifications
- Achieving a language proficiency via a Defense Language Proficiency Test
Yes, that’s six completely unique ways to earn promotion points in this category! Mix and match them then you decide how you want to attack each of these.
The opportunity here is a great one, so seize this opportunity!
College Credits for the Experience You Already Have
As a soldier you already have a level of college credits available to you, and you may not even know it!
This is a great way to accumulate civilian education promotion points with very little additional effort. Every soldier has established college level credit. You can be granted college credit, from 8 to 60 semester hours, based solely on your military training and experience. This would include Basic Combat Training (BCT), Advanced Individual Training (AIT) as well as NCOPDS schools, select correspondence courses and certain other resident and non-resident courses.
Your local education or learning center maintains the American Council on Education (ACE) guide that identifies each military school and its recommended college credit. The key here is to have your specific skills and experience recognized by an Army recognized college or university.
As you might know, not all institutions are created equally so it’s important to little research here. Head over to the U.S. Department of Education Web Site to make sure your institution is listed and recognized. Once complete, you can have an evaluation completed and have these free credits added to your official transcript.
Boom! You have now earned college credit and civilian education promotion points! Turn in your transcript and collect them all! Congratulations!
I personally received more than 50 semester hours of this “free” college credit by using this method. This approach can be frequently overlooked by soldiers because this is not spelled out clearly in Army publications. Don’t wait too long as it can take a number of weeks to complete this process so give yourself plenty of runway to close this out.
Civilian Education Promotion Points for Technical Certifications
Technical certifications are awarded 10 civilian education promotion points each and are limited to a maximum of five certificates (50-points max).
These certificates must be TRADOC approved technical, industry, and/or professional certificates. You are only granted civilian education promotion points one time, at the initial certification. Re-certifications will not be recognized for duplicate points.
You can see the list of these authorized certifications by Army Human Resources Command web site and logging into the system.
Capture the Opportunity!
Don’t let the civilian education category pass you by. With a little effort, some focus, and a positive mindset you can intentionally max out this bucket and get promoted ahead of your peers, regardless of your MOS!
For more, check out these other related blog posts:
https://www.armypromotionpoint.com/blog/using-an-army-promotion-points-calculator
https://www.armypromotionpoint.com/blog/army-e-4-to-e-5-promotion-points
Good luck!
Email me with any questions or comments at: steven@armypromotionpoint.com