Navy to Require Degrees for Advancement

The Navy has announced plans for institutionalizing a Professional Military Education (PME) Continuum that integrates advanced education, Navy-specific professional military education (NPME) , joint processional military education (JPME) and leadership development. By 2009, the PME will require all E-7's competing for E-8 to have at least an Associates Degree, and by 2013 anyone competing for E-9 will have to have a Bachelor's Degree. Sailors interested in earning their Associates or Bachelor's degree can get free information from military-friendly schools at Military.com.

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WASHINGTON � Enlisted sailors may have to hit the books if they want to reach the highest ranks.

A new Navy military education policy, which in part guides professional development for all sailors, outlines general goals for emphasizing continuing education courses and college-level degrees for all enlisted personnel.

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Ed Barker, spokesman for the Naval Education and Training Command, said officials hope by 2010 to mandate associate and bachelor�s degrees for sailors advancing to senior ranks, though no specific timetables or benchmarks have been set.

�The goal is to tell a young [sailor] now that if he plans to make senior chief, he should include education,� he said. �There is going to come a time when, if you don�t have that degree, it could hurt you.�

In announcing the education proposals last month, Vice Adm. Alfred G. Harms Jr. said higher education is essential for enlisted servicemen �to better prepare them to operate tomorrow�s fleet� and to ensure they are prepared to take over leadership roles in the Navy.

Currently servicemen being promoted to the highest enlisted ranks must graduate from the Navy�s Senior Enlisted Academy in Rhode Island. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. David Egermier, spokesman for the academy, said the proposed rule change likely would not affect operations there, since most of their courses are specialized military management lessons.

That's not surprising; more and more companies and institutions like the military are requiring continuing education, since the days of a single career over a 40-year period is pretty much gone. If you're thirty years old, the chances are pretty good that the job you do now will not be the job you'll be doing when you're sixty.

Most of the people coming to work at my facility are retired US Army folks. All of the commissioned and warrant officers are college grads (with at least a bachelor's degree); and probably 75% of the retired enlisted people (E-7's and above) have their bachelor's degree as well.

Boeing's new policy is that half of all its new hires (which includes production folks) will be undergraduate level college graduates, and most jobs will require you to continue your education. Although I'm grandfathered in, any new people doing my job will need an MBA (which I don't really consider necesary, but nobody asked me).

The bottom line is that, unless you're in a trade like plumbing or HVAC or electrician -- or you have your own business -- you're going to have to get used to the idea that you'll need a college degree, sooner or later, to ensure your long-term employabiligy.