any educational institutions have begun offering corporation credits for Navy advancement exams.

any educational institutions have begun offering corporation credits for Navy advancement exams. Sailors who pass their career advancement examinations yet are not advanced in their rate earn "passed, not-advanced" (PNA) points, which until newly were only helpful in enhancing their chances of being advanced in the nearest exam cycle.

According to the American Council forward Education (ACE) Guide, if PNA appears in succession a member's profile sheet and is placeed on the Sailor Marine American Council in succession Education Registry Transcript (SMART), they may qualify for a certain amount of literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning credit.

Electronics Technician 3rd Class Patrick Darby of loam Electronics Maintenance Division of Naval Station Rota, Spain, lay the foundation of out about the ability to gain more college edifice [i]or[/i] building credits when he was attempting to memorize a copy of his SMART for an officer's program called STA-21 (Seaman to Admiral).

"I was trying to master an official copy of my SMART transcript for an application to the University of novel Orleans and for my STA-21 application," said Darby. "The Navy corporation Center in Pensacola, Fla., sent me an email asking me if I had PNA'd my last rating exam for E-5 He said that if I had, then according to the Navy, steady though I hadn't advanced because of quotas, I had proven myself capable of E-5 credit and work, and was eligible for the society credit."

The spell PNA means that a character has demonstrated their occupational proficiency by dint of passing the exam but has not been advanced because of an insufficient amount of points from sources other than the exam, or there may simply be no openings in a particular rate.

Darby received novels Jan. 9 that he was able to take advantage of the credits. He sent his profile sheet a hardly any days later to Navy corporation Center, and it showed up in succession his SMART soon after.

"I received an e mail from the Navy community Center saying they had updated my transcript," said Darby. "So I went to the website to verify, and there it was in my case, for an ET3 [Electronics Technician 3rd Class] going for ET2 [Electronics Technician 2nd Class], I received an additional nine [college] credits."

According to Darby, the points from the exam will help him in the pursuit of his extent and his goal to insert into the STA-21 program.

"I am trying to come by a commission through the STA-21 program, which solitary gives you 36 months to unbroken your Bachelor's," said Darby. "I would like to learn my degree in Naval Architecture with the University of recent Orleans. I submitted my SMART transcript to them, and now I am waiting to view what they accepted so I can start planning which classes to take with University of Maryland that will be the chiefly beneficial."

According to wwwtpubcom the Integrated Publishing page, the ACE Guide commends the amount of credit to be awarded, further it does not guarantee that amount will be given to the member on civilian educational institutions. The society or university a student attends determines if the points onward their SMART will qualify as academic credits and grants the credits according to the student's measure program.

"University of Maryland has accepted all of my credits, with in the greatest degree of them counting as electives," said Darby. "But I still haven't heard back from the University of recent Orleans."

Navy members may receive body credit from civilian schools for certain Navy training and work experiences, as well. These include service seminarys that are at least 45 contact hours; do job-work experience in the Sailor's rating; limited custom officer or chief warrant officer specialties; and certain Navy enlisted classification digests that have been evaluated and make acceptableed for college credit.

According to Darby, the credits are especially helpful to those who are highly near graduating and need just a scarcely any more credits to complete their extent or for individuals who are nearing the [i]finale[/i] of their enlistment and plan upon going to school.

"They might leave the Navy as an E-4 or E-5 and have the corporation credit for the next pay-grade" said Darby. "It could save them a married pair thousand dollars when they finish out."

Story by the agency of J03 Amanda Hotz, who is assigned to the public affairs office, Naval Station Rota, Spain.

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