Higher education is important in any career field, but how important is it was talking about your career as a correctional officer?

When you begin your career in corrections, the majority of the entry-level positions only require that you have graduated from high school or have completed an equivalency educational program, such as General Educational Development, a GED.

Most, if not all correctional officer entry-level positions require no special experience background or higher education to start, but they do expect potential applicants to possess a certain set of skills in order to succeed in their career.

Some areas that you may want to improve on if you feel that you are lacking in a particular area that directly related to correctional officers duties and job description include some of the following:

• Good Communication Skills, Both Written and Oral
• Be able to Read and Comprehend Information and Follow Instructions
• Be able to perform simple Arithmetic
• Must Have Good Interpersonal Skills
• Be aware of the various Rules & Regulations that correspond to your position

Initially, most of these areas would be covered in the basic academy training normally provided by the hiring organization, but in this type of environment, it usually isn’t the primary focus as it would be in a dedicated class or course.

So you’re probably reading this and thinking, I don’t need higher education to do any of this, and for the most part, you’d be right. So where does the need for higher education actually come into play? Promotion!

Promotion and career advancement are the primary drivers for a correctional officer pursuing higher education. With a promotion come higher salary, greater benefits, and increased responsibility. Some organizations actually provide incentive bonuses to individuals that have completed an Associates’s, Bachelors’s, or Masters Degree program.

So the choice is yours if you would like to see additional information on beginning a degree program you can find it here.