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36 G.I. JOBS | OCTOBER 2016 | GIJOBS.COM University and all of the centers and schools across the Army. Army COOL is a powerful online resource designed to allow soldiers to search for credentials related to their military occupation. Soldiers can use Army COOL to find and select MOS-related credentials, learn about credential requirements, learn about available resources, and learn how to apply for and take credentialing exams. What about the Career Skills Program? Davenport: The Career Skills Program is managed through the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. CSPs provide soldiers with the opportunity to participate in career and employment skill training opportunities, including apprenticeships, internships, on-the-job training (OJT), and job shadowing during their transition period to improve employment options upon transition from active duty. How many MOS's currently have civilian-equivalent cerঞficaঞon or licensing? Davenport: Currently there are 74 Programs of Instruction offered by our centers and schools which fully align to a civilian vocational credential and operate under a Memorandum of Understanding/Agreement with a third-party credentialing body. These POIs educate and train our officers, warrant officers and enlisted soldiers. How many MOS's offer academic credit? Davenport: More than 70 Military Occupational Specialties within the Army provide some level of recommended academic degree transferability through the review conducted by the American Council of Education. This agency helps to systematically review each Army course and look for commonality between civilian and military learning outcomes. Programs such as the "College of the American Soldier" work with multiple colleges and universities in order to maximize this ACE credit transfer recommendation on behalf of our soldiers. Will all MOS's eventually be ঞed to civilian credenঞals or academic credit? Davenport: We are working toward that very end with the vast majority of our MOS's, but there are many Military Occupational Specialties which may never be directly aligned to some type of civilian credential or academic degree plan. This DID YOU KNOW? On any given day, TRADOC has more than 50,000 soldiers in training. technical schools, many of which are located right outside of their installation. This close proximity allows for greater collaboration which furthers the organizational goals of our Army and our partners. Soldiers leaving the Army without civilian-recognized credenঞals for their military training and experience has been an obstacle. How is Army University tackling this challenge? Davenport: So a couple of ways. First of all, what the inception of Army University allows for is that organization that I was talking about – a one-stop shopping location for all this to get done. So first and foremost all of our Programs of Instruction (POI), all of the curriculum that our soldiers are exposed to, is run through ACE to make sure we can give them as much college credit that we can based on the time that they're spending in the classroom. And so when you do that and then you establish the joint transcripts – the universal transcript – that allows documentation of that experience in the Army classroom. And then of course the work in credentialing, we are working to include that as well on the transcript so that when they go to academia not only can they see the education they received in the Army classroom, they can also see the credentialing effort. Is Credenঞal Opportuniঞes On-Line (COOL) now part of Army University? Davenport: Army COOL is currently managed through the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, but it does work closely with Army