Joining Forces to Help Our Veterans

When I signed on with the Creating IT Futures Foundation in 2010, I knew that veterans were among those we helped train for information technology careers. But I knew very little about military veterans' experiences, especially veterans of our recent wars. Where I live in Northern Virginia, a number of my neighbors are current military, but they are officers — not the enlisted majority. So I began to do research, talk to people, attend events, and pore over relevant articles. And as you might expect, I learned there isn't a single profile that returning soldiers share. From military branch to location to assignment within their unit, dozens of factors go into defining a veteran's unique service experience.

But here's what is fairly prevalent: Much of what enlisted personnel learn in the service does not easily translate to a civilian job. A soldier's Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) may not have an equivalent in the civilian world or may not be a career path that a veteran wants to pursue in the private sector. For many Army veterans, their MOS is one of four infantry roles. For those who were in the Signal Corps and involved with military communications, the technical systems they learned in the military may no longer be in use in the civilian world.

That's why there is such a strong need for training and career counseling once a serviceman or servicewoman decides to leave the service. What we've learned in designing and managing our IT-Ready Apprentice Program is that people from all different occupational backgrounds and life experiences can be trained quickly to successfully enter the IT workforce, even without prior IT experience. Veterans are no different. In fact, I hear over and over from employers that they love to hire veterans because they are disciplined, focused and often more mature than peers of a similar age. What keeps employers from hiring a veteran is often a candidate's lack of the necessary technical skills.

I applaud First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for their ongoing efforts to focus our nation's attention on the needs and strength of America's military families through the Joining Forces initiative. In 2011, Joining Forces set a goal to hire or train 100,000 vets by the end of 2013. The program has already hired or trained 290,000 vets or military spouses. CompTIA and the Foundation have been doing our parts to reach that goal through our IT-Ready Apprentice Program and CompTIA's Troops to Tech Careers campaign.

There's a common misconception that veterans don't have enough services available to them. More often, the services are available, but when it comes to career choices, the veteran doesn't know which path to take or there is an impossible maze of websites, regulations, and forms for them to navigate. In addition, veterans often feel preyed upon by organizations that want to gain access to their benefits. When it comes to training, there is concern among veterans and their advocates that some organizations don't provide proper career counseling. As a result, G.I. Bill funds are applied toward a degree program that sometimes doesn't get the veteran on a viable career path.

To counter that perception and attract more veterans to IT-Ready, we felt it was important to not use their benefits to fund our program. In fact, no one in our program, veterans included, pays anything to participate. Our funding comes entirely from charitable donations. We want to help a veteran get their IT career started — and be able to reserve their G.I. Bill benefits for a degree to advance that career.

In our first two classes of IT-Ready, about 10 percent of our graduates have been veterans. One of those graduates is Michael Dauffenbach of Minnesota, now employed as an IT-Ready Apprentice at Medtronic in Minneapolis. Dauffenbach, now 24, was a National Guardsman in Minnesota in July 2011 when his unit was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. As an infantryman, Dauffenbach took part in convoy operations in an area where anything could happen.

Working under such stressful conditions as such a young man, you'd think Dauffenbach could do most anything when he returned to civilian career. But it took a retooling of his skills through IT-Ready before he could work as an associate tech solving IT problems at a 30,000-employee company.

For Creating IT Futures, bringing greater diversity to the IT workforce includes bringing more veterans into our industry. We are working on a strategy on how to significantly expand our IT-Ready programs to many more cities by the end of the decade, with some specific plans for veterans. We look forward to supporting the efforts of Joining Forces and other programs that take a holistic look at the needs of our military families.