The Army recognizes that there is a direct mission and operations benefit from having soldiers that are better educated, and to that end they have a great number of programs that are designed to assist a soldier in getting a college education. One of the programs deals with helping an Army soldier in the field access education and educational opportunities.
The eArmyU program is one that gives enlisted soldiers a chance to work toward certificates and a degree “Anywhere, at any time,” according to their program material. There are over 25 Universities and Colleges that are regionally accredited that participate in the eArmyU program. All together they offer 145 degree and certificate programs for the Army enlisted Soldier to choose from.
eArmyU is an online and distance-learning program that you can find within the portal GoArmyEd found on the Internet. It is a relatively new program that brings together a lot of state of the Art technology along with standard learning concepts, to help the soldier work toward a degree. Some of the benefits offered by the program include: Free Internet Service Provider with unlimited (ISP) access, total course fees paid for, free textbooks, free tuition, as well as a number of other benefits. Unlimited helpdesk access is also available, 24 hours a day seven days a week.
At times this program has offered a free laptop, under certain conditions. Currently, this program feature is on hold, and may be offered again should budget constraints be eased.
Eligibility for the eArmyU program is fairly open, if you are an active Duty Army enlisted Servicemember, and you wish to work toward a college degree or a specific certificate then this program may be just the ticket for you. The eArmyU program was first began in 2001 to give Active Duty enlisted soldiers more opportunities for education advancement than were currently being offered at the time. So far there has been more that 54,000 soldiers that have participated taking course from 29 different institutions that participate in the program.
Using the enrollment available through the eArmyU program, soldiers use their own personal computers to enroll through an eCourse web site. There is no service requirement to participate in the eCourse program, if the option to earn a free laptop computer is restarted at some point then soldiers choosing this option must serve an additional three years or have at least 36 months remaining on their current enlistment to participate in that element of the course.
