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Authority for Funded Credentialing Exams

The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy authorize use of appropriated funds to pay for license and certification exams for Navy and Naval Reserve service members pursuing occupational credentials. This action further strengthens the Navy Credentialing Program that benefits service members, providing them another significant opportunity to accelerate their professional development.

• Dept. of Defense (DOD) revised authorization (16-Jul-09)
• Dept. of Defense (DOD) original authorization (13-Nov-08)
• Dept. of Navy (DON) authorization
• OPNAV Instruction

QR Code

QR codes, or Quick Reference codes, are those strangely-patterned boxes you're starting to see more and more of on advertisements and printed materials. If you scan a QR code with a smart phone, you can read the encoded information. (Free QR code readers are available on all major smart phone operating systems.) QR codes can contain information such as a URL, so the user doesn't have to try to type it all in on the phone keypad.

COOL, being cool, has a QR code. Feel free to copy and paste the graphics below into your stuff to make it easier for Sailors to get to COOL when they're on the go. All three images are just different sizes of the same QR code, and encode https://www.cool.navy.mil/index.htm.

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COOL Posters

COOLness for your wall. Printer friendly 8.5" x 11", or print them bigger if you have the hardware.

Note that these are relatively large PDF documents, and may take awhile to download depending on your connection speed.

COOL Fact Sheet

Just the facts, ma’am. The COOL Fact Sheet is a crisp source of information about COOL’s: purpose target audiences development schedule related facts

COOL Videos

Check out these slick COOL promotional videos.

• COOL Info Video 1
• COOL Info Video 2

Navy COOL is helping the Chief of Naval Operations achieve his goal of the Navy being a “Top 50 Employer” one award at a time. Navy COOL has so far received the following recognition:

2011 HCMDA award. In 2011, Navy COOL won first place during the fifth annual 2011 Human Capital Management Defense Awards ceremony in Arlington, Va., Feb. 16. The Navy swept through the HCMD Awards with a total of three first-place wins, including the first place finish for Navy COOL. The organization, Human Capital Management for Defense (HCMD), has brought stakeholders from the Defense and Intelligence communities together to discuss, develop and recognize best practices for managing human resources. As a result of its work the HCMD developed an annual awards program five years ago to honor, recognize and promote the organizations from DoD and the federal government, which have developed and executed those best practices.

2009 ASTD "Excellence in Practice" award. The Navy received international recognition in early February 2009 from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), winning one award and one citation for the Navy's Credentialing Program/Navy COOL in ASTD's annual "Excellence in Practice" awards competition. ASTD is the world's largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. It presents a number of awards each year, including the "Excellence in Practice" awards that recognize results achieved through the use of practices and solutions from the entire scope of workplace learning and performance. The proven practices must meet a demonstrated need, have appropriate design values, be aligned with other performance improvement initiatives, and deliver clear and measurable results for their organizations.

For the ASTD award, more than 130 entries from nine countries were received. Seventeen programs received the prestigious "award" designation, with the Navy being part of an even more elite group of three organizations (CISCO and Farmers Insurance) that has over time received two awards and additional citations. It also was the only government agency to receive an award.

2009 OPTIMAS "General Excellence" award. In addition to the ASTD Award, in 2009 Navy COOL contributed to the Navy receiving the OPTIMAS Award for "General Excellence" from Workforce Management Magazine. An organization must demonstrate excellence in six of nine categories to be awarded for General Excellence and Navy COOL contributed significantly to the Navy winning this outstanding award. Navy COOL also contributed to the Navy being selected the 17th top training organization in the country in Training magazine's Top 125 Award.

As you can tell, Navy COOL is cool! Sailors are achieving their goals one certification at a time, and the Navy is meeting its workforce professionalization goals while preparing its Sailors for the 21st Century!

When you're COOL, people tend to want to write about you. Following are links to articles about COOL.

• Navy COOL – Credentialing program for Sailors from the Navy Life official blog, 3/21/12.
• Navy program aims to get its vets civilian jobs from the Associated Press, 8/6/11.
• Navy Funding Opportunities for Enlisted Credentialing Exams From the 293/07 NAVADMIN.
• Navy Footing Bill for Civilian Certifications from the 10/23/07 Navy Times.
• Navy Credentialing Opportunities On-Line Video Clip from the 11/1/07 Navy Daily News Update.
• Navy COOL Web Site Launches as Hub for Sailor Credentialing Information From the 7/7/2006 Navy Newsstand web site.
• Navy Credentialing Opportunities On-Line Web Site From the 193/06 NAVADMIN.

Looking for COOL graphics? You’re in the right place.

To download an image below, click on a thumbnail. A new window will open, containing the Image.

For Windows:

1. Right click on the image.
2. Select the Save Picture As... option from the pull-down menu that appears.
3. Choose a destination file where you want to save the image.
4. Click Save and the image will be downloaded to the chosen location.

For Mac:

1. Click and hold the mouse button. The option to save the image will display.

Need the scoop on credentialing, but not sure where to start? Look no further! Check out COOL’s Credentialing Overview Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. It covers the basics: what credentialing is what kinds of requirements credentials may have what credentials can mean to Navy personnel what costs may be involved where to get more information

File Size: 309 KB

Pretty COOL, huh?

Use the presentation as-is, modify it, or incorporate the slides into your own presentation. It’s yours to use!

To download the presentation, right-click on the link above, and select “Save Target As...” Specify where you want to save it, then click “Save.”

Need to spread the COOL word? We have just the thing: the Navy Credentialing Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation and the accompanying Instructor Guide. Download these bad boys, read up, and you're good to go.

The Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) are a consortium of more than 1,800 colleges and universities pledged to deal fairly with Sailors on issues that concern them such as credit for military training and experience, residency, credit transfer and testing. Military students can take courses in their off-duty hours at or near military installations in the United States, overseas, and on Navy ships.

SOCNAV is the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges degree program for the Navy. It consists of colleges that offer associate and bachelor's degree programs on or accessible to Navy installations worldwide. These colleges have joined together to form networks in which each college accepts credits from all the others. This guarantees that Navy students and their adult family members can continue toward completion of their degrees even though the Navy may transfer them several times.

For more information, go to the SOCNAV web site.