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Did you know that completing civilian education courses off-duty can earn you the same amount of promotion points as your PT scores? And did you know that education courses can earn you the same amount of points as your honors and awards? Earning a degree, or even demonstrating that you are working toward a degree, undoubtedly helps a soldier stand out at Army NCO promotions boards.
Get Promotion Points for Civilian Education
You can earn a maximum of 100 points for off-duty civilian education when your administrative NCO promotions board points are calculated. In order to calculate points for civilian education, total the semester hours from all of your transcripts from an accredited university, then multiply the total by 1.5.

If you don’t have any civilian education credits, or if you need more, you can easily begin accumulating them. You can do this by working toward a degree, or just by taking classes. These days, you can even do this online in a virtual classroom. There has been a technology revolution in the university education system, and you can now take courses online from anywhere in the world, and through a variety of institutions.

The Army offers a Tuition Assistance (TA) program to help soldiers take university courses off-duty.  All Active Duty Soldiers are invited to participate in the program.

Show Off Your Education at Your Army Promotion Boards
Once you have taken courses in order to boost your promotions board points, you need to prepare to appear before the board.  When you appear before the promotion board, you will be evaluated on your oral expression and conversation skills, as well as your knowledge of world affairs. Both of these are characteristic of well read, well educated people. The more you read and study, the more articulate and informed you become. Your experience traveling and living abroad as a soldier can be enhanced and complimented with university course work.  With a solid education, you can stand before a board with confidence.

Pursing a degree online, with the help of the Tuition Assistance program, is the best way to advance your career. While earning valuable points for the promotions board, you are also preparing to appear before the board with confidence. You can achieve all of this for free, and online.

Resource:
To calculate your possible promotion board points check out the promotion point worksheet. Be sure to note the civilian education category.