Four ways VA makes it easy to head back to school

There was always a sense of satisfaction in learning something new each time we went back to school. As adults and professionals, we know that learning never stops, but sometimes there can be impediments to our personal progress.

With that in mind, let’s look at four ways VA helps you over those hurdles to take advantage of going back to school.

1. Internal opportunities

If you’re looking for a new challenge, and your goal is to make the most of your career, we have plenty of doors to open for you. Through our Leadership Development Framework, we offer learning and development resources to support you in your career.

We facilitate career development through continuous learning, mentoring and assessment over the span of your career. These programs can get you promotion-ready by helping you demonstrate successful understanding in the core competencies we promote in our leaders.

2. External exploration

If you want to go back to school beyond your professional development, we offer a broad array of educational partnerships that can get you where you want to go.

Start with the Employee Education System, which offers accredited courses and programs in association with 17 national and two state accrediting bodies. Additionally, you can sign up for general or specialized coursework from a wide variety of nearby colleges and universities that partner with us, and often, we can even help you pay to take the courses.

3. Scholarships

We offer the possibility of health care scholarship opportunities for employees like yourself, so if you’re of a mind to learn something new, why not see if we’ll help you pay for it?

The Employee Incentive Scholarship Program could offer eligible employees up to $41,000, tax-free, to help pay for tuition, registration fees or even books. There’s also the Health Professional Scholarship Program, which may provide financial assistance to qualifying applicants, including those attending medical school in a field applicable to our work here at VA.

Nurses and first-time clinicians can apply for specific scholarships, as well. Isaac N. Womack took advantage of our VANEEP scholarship – which covers education costs and pays a replacement salary while you attend school.

“This generous scholarship enabled me to attend a program that was elsewise out of my financial reach,” said Womack, who completed nursing school at the University of Portland.

4. Student loan repayment

If you already have a degree, you may find we might be able to help with that, as well.

There’s the Education Debt Reduction Program, which can help qualifying medical professionals repay up to $200,000, or the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which thanks you for serving others by offering the possibility of lifting a little of that weight off your shoulders. There’s even the possibility of receiving up to $10,000 per year through the Student Loan Repayment Program for qualifying careers.

Opportunities abound

If you’ve been bitten by the back-to-school bug, or just want a new challenge in your career, take advantage of the education opportunities we have available to you.

• LEARN about our leadership development programs.
• EXPLORE coursework with partnering colleges and universities.
• READ about our scholarship programs.
• EXAMINE our student loan repayment
• APPLY for a VA career.