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The second group, technical schools and supervisors, will be surveyed to determine whether meeting the requirements of a civilian certification program helped them or if it created additional challenges, DiGiovanni said.
As the service members involved in the pilot program transition from military service, a third group, employers, will be surveyed. “We’d have to go to some of the industry folks and say, ‘The fact that [service members] were able to get some of these licenses or credentials while on military service, did that help in your decision to hire an individual? What kind of employee are they?’ “For us, the objective really is honoring the service of our service members and helping them … while they’re in the service to professionalize and expand their knowledge in these occupational areas,” DiGiovanni said. The program’s second aim is to determine whether conducting this type of training through the services is cost-effective. Other options could include vocational training through the Department of Labor or Veterans Affairs. The pilot is one of several DOD Credentialing and Licensing Task Force initiatives, said Eileen Lainez, a spokesperson for the Defense Department.
“We’re looking at how we can better document and translate military training and experience so that civilian credentialing agencies and states can better understand the nature of military training and award appropriate credit,” she said. “However, civilian employers also report that translating military skills to civilian job experience is one of the biggest challenges of hiring employees with military experience,” Lainez said. “Civilian credentials provide a means of doing this translation.” “Industry has told us … that military members bring several advantages to the table,” DiGiovanni said, adding that employers consider service members and veterans to be diligent, efficient and reliable. On the flip side, service members and veterans report that their military experience provided them with leadership and problem-solving skills, adaptability and the ability to work in teams, he added. “In many industries … the training and experience they have in the military gives them a jump start.
2012-11-29
