Trading Up
‘GI Bill 2.0’ opens doors of trade schools to veterans.
By Andrea Downing Peck

Changes made to the Post-9/11 GI Bill earlier this year – dubbed the GI Bill 2.0 – will allow students to use the education benefit for non-college degrees, offering today’s veterans a smorgasbord of educational choices ranging from four-year degrees at the nation’s elite colleges and universities to trade schools, flight training and apprenticeships.

The expansion of benefits, which begins Oct. 1, 2011, is due to passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Improvement Act of 2010, which was signed into law on Jan. 4, 2011. Whereas the Post-9/11 GI Bill previously was restricted to degree-granting institutions, the GI Bill 2.0 opens the doors of vocational schools to student veterans.

‘It is Huge.’
About 30,000 veterans used the Montgomery GI Bill or other Veterans Administration (VA) education benefits to attend non-college degree programs, apprenticeships or on-the-job training during the 2010-2011 academic year. Keith Wilson, director of the VA’s Education Service, expects that number to rise this coming year as veterans interested in trade schools and other non-degree programs take advantage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill’s more lucrative education benefits.

“I think it is fair to say we will see the same type of increase in the on-the-job-training/apprenticeship areas as we saw in the rest of our student population,” Wilson said, pointing to the surge in the number of veterans using GI Bill benefits to attend college after the Post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009. “I think it is fair to expect a 40-percent increase over that 30,000 number.”

Darrell Roberts, executive director for Helmets to Hardhats, an organization that helps veterans transition into construction industry jobs, has nothing but praise for GI Bill 2.0.

“I can’t say enough about this news,” Roberts said. “We’ve been singing it from the tops of the towers. It is huge. It is going to outlive us all as far as helping veterans into the future.”

Roberts expects the revised Post-9/11 GI Bill to make apprenticeship training more attractive to veterans since apprentices can receive financial assistance while they learn a craft that offers middle-class wages and benefits.

“You earn while you learn and you also are going to receive your GI Bill benefits in your pocket,” he said.

The construction industry offers apprenticeships in 15 trades and more than 80 crafts for jobs as pipefitters, ironworkers, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, sheet metal workers and boilermakers. Apprenticeships combine classroom and on-the-job training and can last from three to five years. To learn about construction industry apprenticeships, go to www.helmetstohardhats.org.

Reversal of Fortunes
CyberTex Institute of Technology, a Texas school with campuses in Austin and Killeen, near Fort Hood, watched its enrollment fall in recent years as veterans opted to attend community colleges using the Post-9/11 GI Bill rather than trade schools such as CyberTex.

Regional Director Ali Azam expects a reversal in the school’s fortunes beginning in October when trade schools become eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill funding. He expects recently discharged service members to make up half the students at the Killeen campus.

“We definitely don’t have any problems attracting veteran students,” Azam said. “The problem is funding them, so this is going to give us a whole lot of students who can be funded automatically.”

CyberTex offers programs in information technology and medical assistant training. Nine-month programs cost about $1,200 per month, with students attending classes 20 hours per week, where they learn skills that translate directly to the workplace.

“This bill may or may not make any difference to larger vocational schools, but for small vocational schools whose main focus has been veterans, like us on our Killeen campus, this is going to make a huge difference,” Azam said. 

The Details
Beginning Oct. 1, the GI Bill 2.0 allows eligible veterans to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill for:

• Non-college degree programs – The GI Bill 2.0 pays for all in-state tuition and fees at public trade schools, vocational schools and certificate programs, and up to $17,500 per year at private and foreign institutions. For full-time students, it also pays $83 per month for books and supplies and a housing allowance equal to BAH for an E-5 with dependents in the ZIP code where the school is based.
• On-the-job training and apprenticeship training – Students will receive 100 percent of the housing allowance during their first six months of training. The housing allowance will decrease every six months until reaching a level of 20 percent in the third and subsequent years of training. Pays $83 per month for books and supplies.
• Flight programs – Pays up to $10,000 per academic year for vocational flight training. Individuals pursuing flight training through a degree program at a public institution of higher learning will receive unlimited in-state costs, while students at private degree-granting schools will receive up to $17,500 a year. Only students pursuing flight training through a degree program will be eligible for the housing allowance or book stipend.
• Distance learning – Pays the in-state tuition and fees assessed by the school or $8,500, whichever is less. Distance learners also will receive a housing allowance equal to 50 percent of the national average BAH for an E-5 with dependents.

For more information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill and non-degree programs, go to www.gibill.va.gov.