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thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Paying for your training

Your certification may already be funded.

If you serve, have served, or are married to someone who does, there is probably a program that will pay for the course and the exam. Four of them matter most for IT and cybersecurity credentials. Here is what each one covers, who qualifies, and the rules that catch people out.

Not eligible for any of them, or paying for this yourself? thinQflex™ is for you — you tell us what you can pay, in full or across twelve months, and we answer.

Browse the catalog Talk to us: 855-868-4467
$1,500 a class, flat. Course prices in the catalog are MSRP. Qualified military personnel funding through any of the programs below pay a flat rate of $1,500 per class instead — which sits inside Army CA's $2,000 annual cap, and takes three classes to reach the AF COOL lifetime cap. It applies only where one of these programs pays us directly. Everyone else, ask us about group and promotional pricing, or name your own price with thinQflex™.

Four ways to fund a credential

Every one of these pays the school directly. None of them reimburse you for money you have already spent — which makes the order of operations the most important thing on this page.

AF

Air Force COOL

Enlisted Air Force and Space Force
$4,500 lifetime

Pays for the credentials tied to your AFSC or Space Force career field — study materials, the prep course and the exam — up to a lifetime ceiling.

What it covers →
CA

Army Credentialing Assistance

Enlisted and warrant officers
$2,000 per fiscal year

Funds one civilian credential per fiscal year — course, materials and exam — for enlisted Soldiers and warrant officers across all three components.

What it covers →
MC

MyCAA

Military spouses
Up to $4,000

The military spouse scholarship for licenses and certifications. Renamed the SpouseWorks Scholarship, but most people still search for MyCAA.

What it covers →
VT

VET TEC 2.0

Veterans and separating service members
Tuition, housing and books

VA pays a high-tech training provider directly, and pays you a housing allowance while you train. Back since 2026 after the original pilot expired.

What it covers →

Paying for it yourself: thinQflex™

Most people who call us do not qualify for any of the four programs above — they never served, or their spouse did not, or the funding year is already spent. That used to be the end of the conversation. It is not any more.

thinQflex™ — Your Training. Your Budget. Your Way.

Pick any course in our catalog and tell us what you can pay for it. Pay it in full, or spread it across twelve monthly payments — whichever you propose is part of the conversation. A person reads every offer and comes back with a yes, a no, or a number we can do. Nothing is charged unless you accept, and no card details are taken to make an offer.

We do not know of another certification training provider that lets you do this.

See how thinQflex works Browse the catalog and make an offer

What it is

  • Your own money, on terms you propose
  • Every course in our catalog, and courses that are not in it yet
  • Paid in full, or twelve payments — the first today, eleven after
  • Course materials and thinQtank® University access on the first payment, whenever the class itself runs
  • A written agreement you read and accept before anything is charged

What it is not

  • Not a grant, and not government funding
  • Not a loan from a third party, and no credit check
  • Not automatic — an offer can be declined, or answered with different terms
  • Not a reason to skip the programs above. If one of them covers you, use it first: that is money you never pay back
  • Not combinable with the $1,500 military flat rate — that rate is for seats the Department of Defense pays for directly
This cannot be combined with military pricing. The $1,500 flat rate exists because the Department of Defense pays us directly for those seats. A thinQflex offer is your own money on your own terms, so the two do not mix — it is one route or the other, not both. If you qualify for a program above, that is almost always the better answer. If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, call us on 855-868-4467 before you submit anything.

Cutting the cost: discounted exam vouchers

The exam is a separate bill from the training, and it is the one people forget to budget for. We are a training partner for CompTIA and EC-Council, so we can order exam vouchers and pass the difference on.

Exam vouchers, below list price

Order a voucher for any exam we carry and the code is emailed to you within 24 hours. You book the exam yourself, wherever and whenever suits you — the voucher is just what you pay with. Savings run to 14% off the vendor’s own price.

They are valid 12 months from the day they are issued and no vendor extends them, so buy one when you are close enough to sitting the exam to use it.

Browse exam vouchers
If a program above is paying, do not buy a voucher. AF COOL and Army Credentialing Assistance pay the vendor directly and there is no reimbursement — a voucher you bought yourself before the funding was approved is money you will not get back. Get the funding approved first and let them pay for the exam. A discounted voucher is for people paying their own way, which is most people, and it stacks perfectly well with a thinQflex™ offer on the course.

The rules at a glance

Numbers move. These were checked against official sources in August 2026 — the program page for each one links straight to the source.

ProgramWho it is forWhat it paysThe catch
Air Force COOL Enlisted Air Force and Space Force $4,500 across your whole career Lifetime cap, not annual. Officers and drilling reservists are out.
Army CA Enlisted and warrant officers $2,000 per fiscal year, one credential Shares a $4,500 pot with Tuition Assistance. Commissioned officers lost eligibility in March 2026.
MyCAA Military spouses Up to $4,000 Licenses and certifications only, and an approved training plan has to come first.
VET TEC 2.0 Veterans and members within 180 days of separating Tuition, a housing allowance and books Only 4,000 people are funded per fiscal year, and it now charges GI Bill entitlement.

How this works, whichever program you use

The shape is the same every time.

Work out which program applies to you

Serving, separated, or the spouse of someone serving — that answers it most of the time.

Go to the official portal, not to us

AFVEC, ArmyIgnitED, the SpouseWorks portal or VA.gov. We are the school, not the approving authority, and we cannot decide your eligibility.

Pick the credential and ask us for a quote

Every portal wants the same things: your name, the dates, itemised costs. Tell us which program it is for and we will format it to suit.

Submit the funding request and wait for approval

This is the step to be patient with. Approval has to land before anything else happens.

Train, test, and report your result

Every program has a reporting deadline, and every one of them can claw the money back if you miss it.

Credentials people fund this way

Vendor-neutral foundations and the certifications that show up most often in military and government role requirements.

CompTIA

Security+, Network+, CySA+, A+

The baseline for most DoD 8140 cyber workforce roles, and the usual first credential.

See CompTIA courses →

Cisco

CCNA, CCNP Enterprise, CyberOps

Networking and network security, from the associate level up.

See Cisco courses →

ISC²

CISSP, CCSP, SSCP

The senior cybersecurity credentials, and the ones that move a salary the most.

See ISC² courses →

PMI

PMP, CAPM

Project management, and a common non-technical pick for a second credential.

See PMI courses →

Questions we get asked

Can I pay now and get the money back later?

No — and this is the mistake that costs people the most. Army CA, AF COOL and MyCAA all pay the school directly, and none of them reimburse out-of-pocket spending. If you enroll or buy an exam voucher before your funding is approved, that is your money. Get the approval first, every time.

Is Air Force COOL $4,500 a year?

No. It is $4,500 for your entire career. Within that, prep courses are capped at $2,000 per credential goal and study materials at $500.

I am an Army officer. Can I still use Credentialing Assistance?

Not for anything new. Commissioned officers became ineligible on 19 March 2026 under ALARACT 102/2025. If you had a credential goal submitted and unfinished before that date, you can still request funding to finish that one. Tuition Assistance is unaffected — officers remain eligible for TA.

Does using Credentialing Assistance eat into my Tuition Assistance?

Yes. They share one $4,500 pot per fiscal year. A $2,000 certification leaves $2,500 for college that year. Worth planning around if you are doing both.

Is VET TEC actually back?

Yes, as VET TEC 2.0. The original pilot expired on 1 April 2024. The Senator Elizabeth Dole Act, signed in January 2025, authorized a new version, and VA opened applications in 2026. It is funded through 30 September 2027, with a ceiling of 4,000 people per fiscal year.

Does VET TEC 2.0 use up my GI Bill?

It charges one month of entitlement per month of full-time training, which the original pilot did not. But that charge does not count against your 48-month maximum, and you can use VET TEC 2.0 even if you have no entitlement left at all.

Do you decide whether I am eligible?

No, and neither does any other school. The Army, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense and the VA make those decisions inside their own systems. What we can do is tell you what a course costs, get you a quote in the right format, and be honest about whether we can be paid by the program you are using.

I do not qualify for any of these. What are my options?

Tell us what you can pay. Our thinQflex™ program lets you pick any course in the catalog and propose your own total, either paid in full or across twelve monthly payments. We read every offer and reply with a yes, a no, or terms you can accept. Making an offer costs nothing, takes no card details, and commits you to nothing.

Can I use the military flat rate and thinQflex together?

No. The $1,500 flat rate is what we charge when the Department of Defense pays us directly for the seat through Army CA, AF COOL, MyCAA or VET TEC. thinQflex is you paying us yourself, on terms you propose. They are two separate routes and you take one or the other. If you qualify for a program, use it — it is money you never pay back.

Is thinQflex a loan?

No. There is no third-party lender, no credit check and no interest — it is our own agreement with you to take the amount you agreed in twelve payments instead of one. You can also propose paying in full, and a lower total is easier for us to approve that way.

Where do I start?

Open the page for your program, check the eligibility list, then go to the official portal it links to. Call us on 855-868-4467 if you want help picking the credential first — that part is free and there is no obligation.

thinQtank® Learning is a training provider. We are not the U.S. Army, ArmyIgnitED, Army COOL, the Department of the Air Force, AFVEC, AF COOL, the Department of Defense, Military OneSource, or the Department of Veterans Affairs, and we are not endorsed by any of them. Eligibility, credential approval, funding availability and payment authorisation are decided by those organizations inside their own systems, under their own policies, which change. Everything on this page was checked against official sources in August 2026 and is offered as a starting point, not as advice about your particular situation. Confirm your own eligibility and current limits in your official portal before you commit to anything.