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   Earning a master’s degree or any degree for that matter, helps you gain specialized knowledge to advance in your field. As the workforce evolves, a graduate degree shows you’re dedicated to enhancing your industry expertise and credibility (Shulsinger, 2017).  

     When a person decides to continue onto higher education after high school, they are opening doors unable to obtain without the proof of dedication and determination. The different levels of education allow a person to obtain different levels of success. The largest difference in separation comes between a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. A large percentage of those who have obtained a bachelor’s degree do not continue their quest for a master’s degree leaving them out of contention for senior positions.  

     We know to be a law enforcement officer, for the most part, you only need to complete a basic police academy, whether it be for a certified position, corrections division, or in the probation field. But, to accomplish and fully understand your field of study, the advancement of higher education is a must. Obtaining higher education will not only help you advance quicker than those that do not have a degree, but it will also enable to you become more efficient in your practice.  

     One potential benefit is the understanding beyond common knowledge regarding mental health, child protection, domestic violence, and working with juveniles (Dominey, 2010). Additionally, to be more effective in community policing, requires skills officers acquire through higher education such as critical thinking, problem-solving, effective oral and written communication, and understanding group and community dynamics.  

     Does higher education contribute to the qualification training of police officers and probation officers? I say unequivocally yes. Since the first criminology program for police officers was founded in 1916 at the University of California at Berkeley in the United States, experts have debated whether baccalaureate degrees in criminology/criminal justice programs are necessary for individuals to become police officers, correctional officers, or probation/parole officers (Schanz, 2013). As I stated earlier, to become a law enforcement officer you do not have to obtain higher education. Although, if you wish to excel and advance in the field of criminal justice, you will need more than high school education. Studies have proven that officers currently working in the criminal justice field have realized the importance of higher education. It’s no secret that people who have graduate school degrees are generally paid more money than those who don’t (Premuzic, 2020).  

In my career, I finally realized without the accomplishment of higher learning I was destined to continue down a meaningless road with my only rewards being the infrequent raise. I believe many are worried about the huge debt that is associated with higher education and the fear they won’t find a better job to help pay their school loans. I have always believed the philosophy of you have to give up something to gain something. That applies to education as well. The quest for higher learning limits your free time, it limits time with your family and creates additional stress. But by giving up these things for a short time will reveal itself by the gains received from the accomplishment of a degree.