What is MyCAA Program?

Along with the honor of serving in the military comes the agony of constant relocation. Those who are impacted the most by this frequent moving are perhaps the families of these servicemen and women, especially their spouses.

In order to accompany their military spouses to wherever their duty calls, they sometimes have to forego stuff that we "civilians" take for granted. Living out of a suit case causes havoc on their professional development. In fact, the rate of unemployment amongst military spouses is believed to be much higher as compared to their civilian counterparts.

To address this problem, the Department of Defense (DOD) introduced what it known as MyCAA program, short for Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts program.

Portable Careers

Also known as spouse tuition assistance, MyCAA program is a career development program instituted specifically for the other halves of servicemen and women on active duty seeking education, training or certification in high demand, high growth portable occupations.

The definition of a portable career is any work that can be done from anywhere and does not require you to be present at a specific location at a specific time.

While traditionally, these careers used to be restricted to occupations like nursing or teaching, the rapid growth in technology has made it possible for almost any kind of work to travel with you wherever you go.All you need are a few basic necessities – a high speed Internet connection and a reliable telephone line among them – to start a portable career.

According to Military.com, more and more military spouses are trending towards such careers. And the reason for their appeal is obvious. With conventional careers, every relocation means starting afresh for military spouses. But with portable careers, moving causes little or no disruption in their work life!

MyCAA Funding

So, the purpose of initiating the MyCAA program is to help the spouses of active duty service members realize their professional goals by removing the financial barrier between them and continuing education that ends in gainful employment.

MyCAA funding provides a financial benefit of $4000 over two years for military spouses who are pursuing education, training or licensure leading to employment in high demand, high growth portable fields.

The benefit has actually been scaled back from its previous limit of $6000 and MyCAA funding is no longer available for four-year and Master’s degree programs. Here are a few more details of the benefits under the MyCAA program:

1. The program pays tuition for training courses and Associate degrees as well as licensure or credentialing exam fee.
2. It offers financial assistance for Continuing Education Unit (CEU) classes. This includes classes offered by professional associations.
3. The program also pays for High School completion courses, GED tests, and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

To be eligible for MyCAA military funding, candidates should be spouses of active duty service members in the pay grades E1-E5, W1-W2, and O1-O2. It requires them to finish their academic program within three years of taking their first course.

It’s also important to note that no money exchanges hands between the applicants and the funding authorities. Instead, payments are made directly to schools they are enrolled in through MyCAA program’s electronic invoicing system.

If you think you can bring about a positive change in your life by availing the MyCAA benefits, the time is just about right to start exploring study and/or training programs that lead to portable careers!