Overcoming Barriers for IT Education: A Complete Guide for Active-Duty Service Members

In the pursuit of personal and professional growth, active-duty service members often find themselves at the crossroads of duty and ambition. 

If that's you, you're certainly not alone.

As you know, the life of an active-duty service member is a complex tapestry woven with the threads of responsibility to country and the innate desire for self-improvement. 

To help aid you in overcoming common barriers when pursuing an IT education, this guide explores how dedicated servicemen and servicewomen like yourself can maintain that delicate balance between military service commitment and IT aspirations.

For more structured help, check out QuickStart’s Military Program. Whether you need an on-demand format that you complete on your own time, or live online classes each week, QuickStart offers flexible learning formats to help you surpass the challenges of balancing IT education with active service.

Challenges Faced By Active-Duty Service Members Pursuing Online IT Education 

Fully transitioning from military life to an IT role can be quite the challenge. Your supervisor, immediate work environment, daily responsibilities, compensation, and other important aspects of your job will all be different.

However, other tenants of hard work will remain the same. You’ll still be involved in teamwork and the drive to protect people and their data from harm’s way.

Let’s explore a few of the challenges you might face:

• Duty Versus Ambition with Unpredictable Deployments

Military life often conflicts with future goals. These deployments, while essential, impact your daily routine in ways that make a learning journey a challenge, if not altogether impossible. Even after returning from a deployment, finding time and motivation for a learning opportunity can be a challenge in itself.

• Challenges of Remote Learning and Time Constraints

Remote learning offers flexibility, but for those in active duty, limited internet access can hinder IT certification preparation. Time is a precious resource amid deployments and service demands, requiring careful planning and sacrifices.

• Financial Barriers and Support Systems

Pursuing IT education can put a strain on your personal finances. Your support system, as well as financial aid or mentorship programs, can be essential in overcoming these challenges. (See "Financial Assistance Options" section below.)

• Balancing Family Commitments

Supportive families are vital, but family commitments can conflict with educational endeavors alongside military duties. With the right support system in place, your family can help you remain accountable and help you surmount these challenges.

The Art of Balancing Military Service Responsibilities with Education

The challenges of balancing family, finances, social lives, and other factors will inevitably consume some of your free time between military commitments. If you’re looking to add education to your schedule, you’ll need to further balance priorities.

Here’s how you can actively balance education alongside other aspects of your life:

Develop Structured Study Plans

To navigate military duty and IT education at the same time, a well-structured study plan is not just helpful — it's crucial. This plan should identify and protect specific times of the day or week dedicated exclusively to hitting the books. 

By earmarking these periods for study, service members can foster a routine that promotes consistent academic progress. This transforms sporadic moments of your day into deliberate study times, helping you inch your way toward IT mastery.

Utilize Downtime Wisely

For active-duty service members, downtime is a rare but golden currency. It's important to invest this time judiciously especially during deployments or in the intervals between assignments. 

By packing study materials, downloading e-books, or pre-loading online courses that can be accessed offline, these moments of stillness can be converted into an impromptu classroom. With a little resourcefulness and strategic planning, you can continue your IT education by making every quiet minute a chance for growth and learning.

Enroll in Online and Distance Learning

In a world where education can be as mobile as the people pursuing it, enrolling in online courses and distance learning programs, like QuickStart’s Military Program, is a game-changer for service members. These flexible educational pathways are designed to dovetail with the unpredictable nature of military life, allowing you to chase academic accomplishment from wherever you are in the world. 

Whether you're learning from home or stationed halfway around the world, these programs ensure that service duties and schedules are no longer barriers to achieving IT educational goals.

Participate in Collaborative Learning

Join forces with comrades-in-arms by forming study groups with other people pursuing IT education. This helps you align your schedule and your goals with other people who envision themselves in a future IT role. 

These collaborative learning circles do more than just enhance your comprehension of IT concepts; they also create a fellowship of motivation, encouragement, and shared resources. This unity in learning will fortify your understanding and help you keep yourself and others accountable in each of your IT learning goals.

Leverage Military Education Benefits

Embrace financial support systems designed specifically for service members, including Active-Duty Credentialing Assistance and various tuition-assistance programs. These benefits are powerful tools in alleviating the economic strains of pursuing professional certification. 

Employ Effective Time Blocking

Implement the strategy of time blocking by setting aside specific chunks of the day dedicated to specific learning tasks (Todoist). Reserve uninterrupted slots for studying to ensure that each session is as focused and productive as possible. 

This methodical approach allows for a more disciplined and efficient use of time, enabling service members to maximize their learning priorities alongside a number of other commitments on their calendars.

Utilize Educational Leave

Make it a point to take full advantage of the educational leave policies provided by the military. Many branches of the armed forces offer provisions for service members to attend classes, sit for examinations, or engage in other educational activities without dipping into their standard leave allotments.

This leave not only underscores the military's commitment to continuous learning; it also provides a practical means for service members to pursue IT education without sacrificing well-earned rest time.

Be in Communication with Command

It's essential to establish and maintain open lines of communication with your superiors when you want to add education to your schedule. This level of transparency promotes a mutual understanding, hopefully leading to support from leadership.

Clear communication ensures that your service duties are not at odds with your academic schedule, helping you better align military and educational commitments during busy days.

Prioritize Tasks Accordingly

Task prioritization is a critical skill that means denoting how urgent each task is and how long it will take. This is likely a skill you already possess from your time in the military, but not necessarily one you’ve applied to a learning environment.

Recognizing and focusing on high-priority learning assignments helps protect your most important priorities. This disciplined approach to task management ensures that service members can uphold any commitment to their military duties while advancing their IT education.

Maintain Effective Use of Technology

In an era where digital tools can streamline our lives, leveraging technology is even more important for productivity (LinkedIn). Productivity applications can be a powerful assistant here, helping you manage your schedule, set reminders, and keep tabs on any academic progress. 

Embracing technology can be instrumental in juggling the demands of military responsibilities and educational pursuits, making time management a less daunting task.

Practice Self-Care

In the demanding life of a service member, maintaining balance is often a challenge. The stress that comes with the territory can be immense, making self-care practices an essential part of daily life. 

Whether it's through regular exercise, relaxation techniques, or adequate sleep, it's vital to invest in your well-being (Health.mil). A service member who is mentally and physically well-prepared is far more equipped to face the rigors of service and the rigors of education during the same day.

Financial Assistance Options: Tuition Assistance Programs

Balancing your military and learning priorities can be a challenge. By the time you make time for your military responsibilities, family life, social responsibilities, and personal entertainment, it can be difficult to find time in your day for active learning.

Another obstacle — tuition — can stop many members of the military from seeking education in the IT space. Fortunately, a variety of tuition assistance resources can make that dream a more affordable reality: 

• Tuition Assistance and Credentialing Support - Tuition assistance (TA) aids military members in covering the costs of approved IT certification courses, lightening the financial load, especially for high-cost certifications. Credentialing assistance (CA) focuses on essential certifications for career advancement.
• Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) Programs - These programs link military experience with civilian IT roles, offering tailored certifications that validate military expertise to potential employers and bolster civilian job prospects.
• Post-9/11 GI Bill: This bill provides comprehensive support for eligible service members, covering tuition, housing, and more to facilitate higher education and vocational training, allowing service members to focus on their studies.
• Montgomery GI Bill and Advanced Certifications - This bill, combined with advanced certifications, empowers service members with up to 36 months of financial aid for a broad range of educational options. These certifications enhance marketability in the civilian job market.
• Service-Specific Programs and Industry Partnerships - Each U.S. military branch offers tailored educational programs, complemented by industry partnerships that deliver specific certifications, bridging the military-civilian divide.

Online and Remote Learning Opportunities for Active-Duty Service Members

As stated above, online learning opportunities help you, as an active-duty service member, learn what you want, where you want, on a timetable that’s most conducive to your success.

• Professional Certifications through Remote Testing: Service members can take certification exams remotely with reliable internet access. This allows flexible study and testing, particularly for vital IT certifications. IT certifications, which are often pivotal for career progression, are now available online exclusively for members of the military.
• Interactive IT Certification Programs: These are designed for active-duty service members. They offer virtual classrooms, real-time interaction, and multimedia learning tools, providing an immersive IT education experience.
• Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for Skill Enhancement: MOOCs provide specialized IT courses for service members, including cybersecurity, programming, and cloud computing. They offer remote access to expert knowledge, accommodating military commitments.
• Language Learning Apps for Enhanced Communication Skills: These apps are flexible tools for service members preparing for international IT assignments. They enable self-paced language proficiency, making travel and downtime productive for learning and improving global communication skills. You can learn about language learning apps, and other IT breakthroughs, through our monthly IT-focused webinar.

Support for Overcoming IT Education Barriers

The intersection of military service and IT education is where dedication meets opportunity. By harnessing these innovative tools and embracing the unwavering support of their military communities, active-duty service members can pave the way for a new IT career.

Despite limitations in time and resources, online learning opportunities can unlock new possibilities for military members like yourself looking to migrate into the IT space. In particular, virtual classrooms and online learning curriculums allow you to learn on your schedule and foster a community despite the distance between one student and the next.

Connect with a QuickStart expert today to take your first steps toward the IT education you deserve. Without the price or timeline of a four-year degree, you can quickly accelerate your tech career and learn the IT skills that modern employers are looking for.