Notes From The Edge - Military Times Edge

It’s still a tight job market in a lackluster economy. But if you’ve left uniform and are about to embark on a civilian job search, you could have a leg up on the competition.

According to a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the top so-called “soft” skills that employers are looking for these days are those most service members develop through military training.

Topping the list were verbal communication skills, according to NACE. Rounding out the top five: strong work ethic, teamwork skills, analytical skills and initiative.

And while NACE acknowledges that these soft skills are not enough to win you that coveted job if other areas of your resume are lacking, they are important in a tight job market.

“Among candidates with similar qualifications, the candidate who can offer the employer more of those important soft skills has an edge,” said Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

Another piece of good news from NACE? The employment outlook for the Class of 2011 is looking good, with employers responding to NACE’s Job Outlook 2011 Fall Preview survey reporting plans to hire 13.5 percent more new bachelor’s grads from the Class of 2011 than they did from the Class of 2010.

When Army veteran Charles Whittington enrolled as a student at the Community College of Baltimore County, he probably didn’t anticipate that his hardest lesson would be one learned outside the classroom.

The 24-year-old former infantryman recently was barred from campus until he obtains a psychological evaluation after an essay he wrote for a college English class appeared in the campus newspaper. In the essay — an “A” paper that his instructor encouraged him to have published — the Iraq veteran referred to war as a “drug” and wrote that killing “is something that I do not just want but something I really need so I can feel like myself.”

As reported in The Baltimore Sun, Whittington hoped that writing the paper would be a first step toward ridding himself of the anxiety and troubled thoughts that had plagued him since his time in combat. But school officials saw the piece as a potential threat to campus security.

In a school environment forever changed by the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007, the decision of school officials is not surprising — and it should serve as a cautionary tale to other combat veterans.

Back in February, I wrote a piece about how much information is too much information when it comes to sharing combat experiences with your college. The education experts I spoke to urged combat veterans to use great discretion when electing to share mental or physical conditions that arose from their military service. Sally Rubenstone, senior adviser on the popular college admissions advice Web site College Confidential, warned that school officials can be wary of bringing to campus those students who have mental health issues that may be perceived as making them unstable or prone to violence.

The American Council on Education recently released a report that takes a close look at the experiences of student veterans and campus administrators during the first year of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The report, Service Members in School: Military Veterans’ Experiences Using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Pursuing Postsecondary Education, was based on the results of an online survey and focus-group sessions on campuses in three states. Many of its findings are unsurprising: On the positive side, the new GI Bill has driven more veterans to pursue a college degree. On the negative side, many respondents and focus-group participants still have trouble understanding what GI Bill benefits are available to them and which of those benefits would best suit their needs.

One interesting nugget in the report dealt with transferring military training to academic credits. Survey respondents and focus-group participants attending private schools indicated greater satisfaction with the credit-transfer process, on average, than those attending public institutions.

The report also includes recommendations from veterans and college administrators for improving the Post-9/11 GI Bill and veterans’ higher-education experiences in general. Suggestions include:

* Establishing an online accounting system available to both institutions and Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries for keeping track of benefit eligibility and payments.

* Maintaining a separate VA telephone hotline dedicated to school certifying officials.

* Prompting prospective students to indicate their veteran status when they first request information or apply to the institution.

* Providing resources to ensure that veterans program administrators — and particularly school certifying officials — have adequate training.

Given the recent findings on veterans’ engagement from the National Survey of Student Engagement, let’s hope the Veterans Affairs Department and schools are listening.

As a whole, colleges and universities have made great strides in recent years to be more welcoming to student service members and veterans. But findings from the latest version of the National Survey of Student Engagement reveal there still is much work to be done to meet the needs of military students.

Among the findings of the survey, which for the first time in its 11-year history, specifically recognized students who were in the armed forces:

* Student veterans, especially in the senior year, were generally less engaged and perceived lower levels of support from their campuses.

* About one in five combat veterans in college reported having a disability, twice the rate of nonveterans.

* Although student veterans on average worked more hours per week and were more likely to spend time caring for dependents, they studied as many hours per week as their non-veteran peers.

The perceived lack of support of veterans “suggests that veterans have some distinctive needs and that colleges need to make an effort to meet them,” Alexander C. McCormick, survey director and Indiana University School of Education professor, told the Web site InsideHigherEd.com.

Yes, but how? As any student veteran can tell you, many schools out there that purport to be “military-friendly” actually are not. And those schools that do make the effort to more fully embrace men and women with military backgrounds offer up a mixed bag of hits and misses. Groups like Student Veterans of America have made great strides in addressing the needs of student veterans attending our nation?s colleges and universities, but work obviously still needs to be done.

I’m curious to see what student vets out there think about 1) the findings of the NSSE survey, and 2) what can be done to improve veterans’ experiences in higher education. Your thoughts?

I have a friend who is returning to the work force after taking six years off to stay at home with her two children. She is in her mid-30s, has a master’s degree and just landed a plum job as a teacher in a highly-sought-after school district.

After a night of celebration over the weekend, she almost put the plum job on the line with a Facebook posting extolling the virtues of her three favorite liquors, proclaiming her love of “getting wasted,” and pondering how she was going to manage to drive home.

Farewell, common sense.

It used to be that embarrassing and potentially damaging lapses of judgment like this affected us only, say, at the office holiday party, where, after a few too many drinks, we said something that got us in trouble. Now, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have moved the “office party” online — with the world watching. At best, the wrong post or Tweet may leave you in an awkward or embarrassing situation. At worst, it could cost you a job or admission to the college of your choice.

If it doesn’t concern you, it should. A 2009 report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling found that one-fourth of colleges surveyed used Web searches or social networking sites to find information about prospective students. In the work force, 45 percent of employers reported in a 2009 CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 22 percent the previous year.

CareerBuilder offers these tips for maintaining a positive image online — and it’s good common sense for always, not just when you’re looking for a job or hoping to get into the school of your dreams:

* DO clean up digital dirt before you begin your job search. Remove any photos, content and links that can work against you in an employer’s eyes.

* DO consider creating your own professional group on sites like Facebook or BrightFuse.com to establish relationships with thought leaders, recruiters and potential referrals.

* DO keep gripes offline. Keep the content focused on the positive, whether that relates to professional or personal information. Make sure to highlight specific accomplishments inside and outside of work.

* DON’T forget others can see your friends, so be selective about who you accept as friends. Monitor comments made by others. Consider using the “block comments” feature or setting your profile to “private” so only designated friends can view it.

* DON’T mention your job search if you’re still employed.

It’s been eight years since I finished college, and, even with seven years of higher education under my belt, I find the idea of a return to the classroom intimidating.

Why? In this rapidly evolving digital age, so much has changed in higher education that I’m not sure I could keep up. Some examples:

* According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, a growing number of college professors are using Twitter to communicate with students and encourage classroom participation.

* Christopher Newport University in Virginia is closing its campus bookstore and opening a textbook Web site instead. According to school officials, online competition for discounted books, e-books and textbook rentals drove the decision.

* In the future, bookstores may not be the only casualties on college campuses. FastCompany.com reports that Stanford University’s engineering school library is becoming nearly bookless, as more publications are being offered in digital-only format.

* Freshmen roommates aren’t even random anymore. According to an article in The New York Times, more and more schools are giving the power of “roommate self-selection” to their students. Some are contracting with matchmaking companies like RoomBug and Lifetopia. What happened to hating your randomly assigned roommate as a rite of passage of freshman year?

* Citing low usage among tech-savvy college-goers who’d rather use their cells, seven colleges in Indiana are doing away with landline phones in dorms.

The list could go on. Obviously, if/when I ever return to the classroom, I?ll fall under the label of “non-traditional student.” Could I even keep up with the young whippersnappers right out of high school? And I’m curious ? is it just me being a technophobe, or does anyone else think there are areas where higher education and technology make for an intimidating — sometimes even crazy — mix?

When it comes to online degrees, do students care more about convenience or cachet? A growing number of traditional schools are banking on the hope that they care about both.

Online higher education is big business — and it’s only getting bigger. More than 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term — a 17 percent increase over the previous year, according to a Sloan Consortium report on online education.

Private for-profits have led the way in online learning, but other schools are catching up. Recently, the Boston Globe took a look at the growth in online offerings from so-called brick-and-mortar schools. These schools are offering something many for-profits can’t — the chance to pursue a “hybrid” higher-education degree by combining traditional classroom-based courses with online learning.

Another enticement? According to the Globe article, many students prefer the status conferred by a degree from an established school. After all, schools don’t differentiate on your diploma whether a degree was earned in the classroom or online. And a degree from, say, the University of Massachusetts or Boston University may garner more respect than one from a newer online-only institution.

What do you think? All other things being equal, would you pursue an online degree from a well-known traditional institution over an equally well-known, but newer and less-prestigious, online-only school?

The trend of community colleges offering four-year baccalaureate degrees keeps growing. Currently, 17 states allow community colleges to award bachelor’s as well as associate degrees. Florida schools lead the way in the movement, with 18 of the state’s 28 community colleges currently offering 111 four-year degrees, according to InsideHigherEd.com.

Higher education officials are somewhat at odds over the emerging trend. While many acknowledge that four-year community college degree programs are necessary to help meet high demand in certain disciplines — think nursing and education — others argue that community colleges are involved in so-called “mission creep” — putting their own traditional missions in peril, as they encroach on the turf of traditional four-year schools.

The idea of a four-year degree from a community college holds a lot of appeal for many non-traditional students. Many such students are attracted to the lower costs, the flexible class schedules and the more personal feel of community colleges.

But with these positives come some negatives. According to a New York Times article on the subject, some critics are concerned that the practice of offering bachelor’s degrees at the community-college level will drive up costs and lead to low-quality degrees.

And then there is the issue of bias. Many people continue to be dismissive of the quality of education and degrees received from community colleges. Comments responding to the InsideHigherEd.com article included, for example, “Saying ‘I graduated from a community college’ doesn’t have a nice ring to it, as saying, ‘I graduated from a University,’ ” and “If you’re going to [the] cheap school then you had better learn something as your diploma won’t open any doors.”

What do you think? Are community college four-year degrees legitimate, respectable and necessary? Or should community colleges leave the bachelor’s degrees to the true four-year institutions?

For-profit colleges are a popular choice among military students. The percentage of military undergraduates attending for-profit schools doubled from 2000 to 2008, rising from 6 percent to 12 percent — a rate three times that of traditional undergrads, according to the American Council on Education.

While many military students report excellent experiences with these institutions, a new report on their marketing practices from the Government Accountability Office should serve as a serious reminder to let the buyer beware. GAO investigators, applying undercover to 15 for-profit schools, found that all 15 made deceptive or questionable statements to applicants, giving misleading information about things like tuition costs, anticipated earning and accreditation. At four schools, applicants were encouraged to commit fraud on financial aid forms in order to qualify for federal aid.

In one case, an applicant was falsely told by a Florida for-profit — schools were not identified by name in the report — that the school was accredited by the same organization that accredits Harvard University and the University of Florida. In another, admissions reps at a certificate program in the Washington, D.C., area claimed that barbers can earn as much as $250,000 a year. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, most barbers earn less than $43,000 annually.

The report also described a pattern of, for lack of a better word, stalking by recruiters at some for-profits. According to the GAO report, “One fictitious prospective student received more than 180 phone calls in a month. Calls were received at all hours of the day, as late as 11 p.m.”

When investigating schools, prospective students would do well to remember the old adage: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Prospective students need to be prepared to be their own best advocates. Some key things to remember:

* Never sign anything you haven’t read — and read carefully – first. If you are feeling pressured to sign something, leave and take the document with you. Read it later, when you are not under such close scrutiny.

* Never lie on any formal document involving financial aid, college application or otherwise.

* Always verify for yourself that a school is properly accredited and accredited as it claims to be by going to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s database of properly accredited institutions and programs.

* Talk to a military education services officer or other trusted mentor if you feel you are being misled by a school.

* Finally, pay attention to word of mouth. The military is a tight-knit community. Listen long enough, and you’ll start to know which schools have a good reputation for dealing fairly with military students, as well as which schools it is best to avoid.

The Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts program, a popular spouse education funding program, will resume Oct. 25, Defense Department officials announced July 20.

The program, known as MyCAA, had been halted temporarily in order to undergo a review after enrollment surges raised concerns about funding.

Excitement over the reinstatement has been tempered by concern surrounding some program changes. Under the old program, all spouses of active-duty service members could receive a $6,000 education benefit. Under the new program:

* Only spouses of active-duty service members and activated reservists in pay grades E-1 to E-5, W-1 and W-2 and O-1 and O-2 are eligible.

* The maximum financial benefit is $4,000 for up to three years from the start date of the first class, with a $2,000 annual cap.

* The funds must be used for associate degrees, licensures or certifications.

According to the Defense Department, the changes bring MyCAA back to its original intent of assisting spouses of junior service members in achieving portable careers. They also better ensure the program’s fiscal health.

While many are glad to see the program sustained in any form, one concern is for those currently in the program who will no longer be eligible for funding after Oct. 25. Others criticize DoD for failing to realize how popular the program would be and making adequate provisions for it. “This is not the way to show military families that they are supported,” one blogger noted.

About $210 million has been budgeted for 2010 for the program, with an increase to $250 million for 2011. In subsequent years, officials are estimating a budget of about $190 million per year.

Educational opportunities for military spouses are limited. DoD should consider ways to restore this promising program to its original levels.