# Secondary Education



## Muscles And Brains (24 Mar 2013)

Hi,
        Is it possible, following the mandatory service of NCM SEP program, to ask the forces to pay for an equivalent program at the university level. Assume both programs are in Canada.
Thanks


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## Armymedic (24 Mar 2013)

You may ask.


Do not expect a positive response, but wierder things have been known to happen.


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## dapaterson (24 Mar 2013)

Generally, to pursue a university level program would mean that you were selected for the University Training Plan for NCMs, or UTPNCM. You would have to be admitted to a university in the program, and be selected for commissioning in an officer occupation that accepts that degree.


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## ArmyGuy99 (25 Mar 2013)

Mods,

Can we merge this and the OP's other post in this forum and move it all to recruiting where it belongs?  


Muscles:

Short version:

Not a chance.

If you want to go that route, go officer from the start and do ROTP.   Otherwise to access UTPNCMP you need min 5 years in, QL5 qualified and meet a bunch of other standards and get your CO to endorse you etc...   Oh and get selected as there are only so many positions available, and of course there are always more people that apply then positions.

Cheers


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## Blackadder1916 (25 Mar 2013)

Muscles And Brains said:
			
		

> Hi,
> Is it possible, following the mandatory service of NCM SEP program, to ask the forces to pay for an equivalent program at the university level. Assume both programs are in Canada.
> Thanks



I'm curious, (assuming you're referring to Med Tech programs since this was in the CFMG board) what would be your goal of having an undergraduate degree in Med Tech-ering other than the laudable ambition of furthering education?  And what benefit would it have for the CF?  Again I'm assuming, but it seems that most undergraduate programs in emergency medical services are aimed at individuals who aspire to supervisory and management positions within the field.   The supervisors and managers of CF medical services are usually senior Med Techs and Physicians Assistants (NCMs who do not require a degree), nurses (officers who have nursing degrees), HCAs (officers whose preferred degree is business - and have no clinical patient care duties) and doctors.  There is a wide delta between what NCM-SEP is intended to provide (a junior soldier able to perform the basic skills of his occupation) and what a subsidized university program (i.e. ROTP, UTPNCM, . . . ) is intended to provide (a junior officer with a general advanced and/or possibly specialized education capable of assuming a leadership position following occupation specific training).

Why would the CF subsidize someone to acquire skills they should already have or which are expected to be acquired during the course of their service either through experience or through additional military courses?  It's been nearly thirty years since I was a Med Tech Med A, but it is unlikely that things have changed much from those days when the ambition of junior medics was often to become a "6B" and could go on independent duty.  If acquiring an undergraduate graduate as a Med Tech is important to you, one of the benefits (if I understand how things work now) of making that step from Med Tech to PA is the possible award of a degree in Physician Assisting from a university in the US.


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