EC now accepting FEMA credits

[Exfactor]

Excelsior College leadership is always looking for ways to help Excelsior students complete their degrees while saving money. Its latest initiative: A policy that will allow Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees and other trainees to pursue advanced college degrees at a lower cost by awarding college credit for FEMA Emergency Management Institute Independent Study coursework.

Under Excelsior’s new policy, students can now present their FEMA training record to the College’s admissions office to be evaluated for corresponding college credit. Excelsior’s ability to translate government and corporate training into college credit—through its extensive internal review process and evaluations by the American Council of Education (ACE) or accredited college institutions—has been often highlighted as one of its major strengths.

More can be read here

[ReyMysterioso]

Excelsior College leadership is always looking for ways to help Excelsior students complete their degrees while saving money. Its latest initiative: A policy that will allow Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees and other trainees to pursue advanced college degrees at a lower cost by awarding college credit for FEMA Emergency Management Institute Independent Study coursework.

Under Excelsior’s new policy, students can now present their FEMA training record to the College’s admissions office to be evaluated for corresponding college credit. Excelsior’s ability to translate government and corporate training into college credit—through its extensive internal review process and evaluations by the American Council of Education (ACE) or accredited college institutions—has been often highlighted as one of its major strengths.

More can be read here

Schweeeeet

[Tedium]

Awesome! Took 'em long enough.

[sanantone]

It's not clear. Is this only for FEMA employees, and do the courses have to be ACE-approved?

https://www.excelsior.edu/credit-for-fema-training

[Life Long Learning]

Excelsior College helped me fast track using FEMA (116 of 120).  I do NOT work for FEMA.

NETC Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and NETC National Fire Academy (NFA) are real F2F courses (2-5 days).  Many are ACE already.  Excelsior College took all of my ACE EMI credits as what ACE said (LL and UL).  I had NFA credits also but they were not needed.
https://www.excelsior.edu/credit-for-fema-training

Not 100% clear what independent study (IS) courses they will take and how many IS per this article?  They have taken them through a community college, but now it looks like they will take them directly like COSC?

“First-responders who have invested hours and hours into FEMA training and independent study courses will now have an accelerated pathway toward completing their degree at Excelsior College,” said Lifang Shih, the dean of Excelsior’s School of Undergraduate Studies. “This will enhance their credentials and bolster their expertise in responding to emergency situations across the country.”
https://life.excelsior.edu/new-excelsior-policy-will-help-fema-employees-complete-degrees-sooner-more-affordably/


Thanks for posting!

[ReyMysterioso]

I'm pre-enrollment application phase with them and just emailed citing that they announced they will take FEMA credits and indicated I had a number of them I'd like to be evaluated. I requested the address info to send them. They replied "Sure thing!" and provided the address. There has as yet been no question of if I work for FEMA.

I suspect that if they don't specifically ask, and I don't specifically bring it up, they'll probably just process them like any other credits. We'll see.

[sanantone]

Excelsior College helped me fast track using FEMA (116 of 120).  I do NOT work for FEMA.

NETC Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and NETC National Fire Academy (NFA) are real F2F courses (2-5 days).  Many are ACE already.  Excelsior College took all of my ACE EMI credits as what ACE said (LL and UL).  I had NFA credits also but they were not needed.
https://www.excelsior.edu/credit-for-fema-training

Not 100% clear what independent study (IS) courses they will take and how many IS per this article?  They have taken them through a community college, but now it looks like they will take them directly like COSC?

“First-responders who have invested hours and hours into FEMA training and independent study courses will now have an accelerated pathway toward completing their degree at Excelsior College,” said Lifang Shih, the dean of Excelsior’s School of Undergraduate Studies. “This will enhance their credentials and bolster their expertise in responding to emergency situations across the country.”
https://life.excelsior.edu/new-excelsior-policy-will-help-fema-employees-complete-degrees-sooner-more-affordably/


Thanks for posting!

Excelsior accepting ACE credits is nothing new, so I'm wondering if they'll accept the non-ACE, IS courses. If not, then this announcement is just telling FEMA employees about an option that's always been available to everyone.

If they are accepting non-ACE, IS courses, then the question is: Does this apply to non-employees as well?