Benefit to help junior enlisted spouses jump-start careers expanded
Spouses get to choose from more career fields after recent changes to a DoD scholarship program. (Pixabay)
Is a career in medicine, make up, gunsmithing or gemology in your future? If you’re a junior enlisted spouse, the military could help you pay for the education you need to get there.
The Defense Department’s My Career Advancement Account, or MyCAA, scholarship program that offers $4,000 for spouses to put toward associate degrees, licenses or certifications, recently got a boost. It now allows spouses to choose from more career fields than ever before and also allows spouses to continue using the scholarship even after their spouse gets promoted out of the junior enlisted ranks (E-1 to E-5, W-1 to W-2 and O-1 to O-2).
Previously, spouses were limited to career fields that met DoD’s definition of “portable,” said Lee Kelley, director for military community support programs at the DoD and a guest on episode 43 of The Spouse Angle podcast, “Expanded Education Benefits for Military Spouses.”
These changes, a result of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, take the burden of proof off the spouse, giving them more options as a means to address historically high unemployment rates among military spouses.
“We know military spouses experience a 24 percent unemployment rate, that’s not even taking into account an unemployment rate, and so how do we arm spouses just getting started in their careers with a meaningful jump-start?” Kelley said. “And so that $4,000 is geared for those junior military spouses for just that reason — to help them obtain education, certification, license that’s going to put them on a career path that they want to be on and address employment as a whole. We know that in this day and age, many families are dual-income families and that it can be challenging to sustain a home in a single-income environment.”
Army spouses Sonia Garza and Paige Bush-McGinnis also joined Kelley on the podcast to share their experiences using the scholarship program.
Bush-McGinnis used the program toward a medical assistant certification program in order to be nationally certified with the National Healthcareer Association. Garza put the scholarship money toward a graduate certificate in grant writing in 2018 and is currently using more of the funds toward a graduate certificate in storytelling and content development, both from the University of Washington.
“This journey through the MyCAA scholarship has really given me a good basis and platform now that a lot of the work employment force has pivoted to working remotely,” said Garza, who left her full-time office job in March because she had to stay home with her children after the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“I’m able to sign on different clients and work with them remotely and have this basis and knowledge to draw from be able to support our family with a second income, where before this I would not have any kind of educational or professional backing in order to do that.”