Labor Secretary Tom Perez thinks most companies in America see veterans as valuable workers, and see the coming wave of separating service members as a boon for business.
Now the problem is getting them ready for that work.
“The good news is we’re getting a lot of those (troops) jobs,” Perez told audience members at the American Legion’s National Credentialing Summit on Tuesday. “The bad news is the assembly line of people is going to move faster … and the skills translation question is still a huge issue.”
The summit — the second held by the veterans group in the past three years — is designed to discuss ways to bridge the gap between military and civilian employment, particularly when it comes to state credentialing requirements.
Conference attendees will spend the next two days looking at public and private efforts to better recognize troops’ past work and skills, a recurring point of frustration for many service members who face lengthy apprenticeship or retraining programs to perform jobs they already held while serving in the military.
They point to medics who can’t qualify as civilian EMTs without repetitive coursework, military truck drivers who have to pay for expensive commercial driver’s license classes, and aviation mechanics who lack credentials to do the same work on planes stateside.
“There’s a demand for skilled workers, and (the military) has the supply,” said Lisa Lutz, president of public policy consulting firm Solutions for Information Design. “We can’t ignore that. But, as taxpayers, we don’t want to make them pay for that training twice.”
Employment experts said the right credentials can also make a dramatic difference to veterans’ wallets.
For example, as sailors and Coast Guardsmen leave the ranks, obtaining commercial seafaring certification before applying for post-military jobs can mean as much as $20,000 more in annual salary, based on classifications that give them more seniority.
Perez said he believes the federal government has made progress on the issue in recent years, with a series of credentialing assistance programs for veterans and pilot programs for active-duty troops to earn credentials while still in uniform.
Solving the problem will take time “because this is still a state-by-state issue,” he said. “On some level, we have to take this almost occupation by occupation.”
But he also said he’s optimistic on the progress so far, especially because of the push from companies to get veterans into those private-sector jobs.
“Businesses are telling me they need more skilled workers, and veterans are some of the best employees they hire,” he said. “So our employers understand the importance of getting veterans in those jobs.”
