This paper examines the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) program, a Department of Labor initiative established under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. The paper describes VETS's core mission to facilitate veteran career development and employment success, details the program's service delivery methods including outreach, training, and partnerships with educational institutions and employers, and explores specialized support for disabled and disadvantaged veterans. The paper highlights VETS's role in providing licensing, certification assistance, and collaboration with related veteran support organizations, demonstrating the program's comprehensive approach to veteran workforce integration.
The website for the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) program touts the fact that the organization seeks to provide meaningful and successful careers for all veterans. VETS is much more than just a program, however, providing a number and variety of different resources for any veteran interested in obtaining and keeping gainful employment. The organization's mission statement describes opportunities that will prepare the veteran for obtaining meaningful careers, maximizing employment, and protecting veterans' rights in the workforce.
The number of veterans since 2001 that have been provided information or been counseled by the VETS program has totaled "more than one million individuals through briefings or individual technical assistance." That number averages more than 75,000 veterans per year benefiting from what the program has to offer. Due to the travesties of war and combat, many of these veterans are suffering from debilitating injuries, both physical and mental in nature.
Since the early 1970s, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has offered therapeutic work programs through its compensated work therapy (CWT) efforts. Many of these veterans receiving help are both homeless and destitute. VETS is there to assist these men and women in building new careers, receiving assistance, and landing jobs.
Research demonstrates the magnitude of this need. Larson and Norman (2014) determined that a large percentage of discharged combat veterans reported "some" to "extreme" difficulty in one or more areas of concern, including social functioning, self-care, and productivity. The VETS program seeks to address those problems by focusing not only on assisting in the veteran's assimilation process, but also by providing veterans with information, training, and assistance.
Without the assistance of programs like VETS, jobless veterans would not only have to rely on other means of support, but could also suffer needlessly, especially those veterans already suffering from various medical maladies. One recent report documents the fact that "participants obtaining competitive employment demonstrated significantly higher scores on the Social Integration, Mobility, and Occupation dimensions" among participants who were veterans suffering from spinal cord injuries.
The VETS program was established in response to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 in order to promulgate, distribute, and promote information and data that will assist veterans in gaining training and education with a view toward finding a job or career after returning home from combat or service in foreign locations. VETS works hand-in-hand with a number of other veteran groups to ensure the transition from military service to civilian workforce takes place in an efficient and effective manner.
The program's mission is accomplished through a number of different avenues, including outreach programs, grants, partnerships with universities and colleges, and partnerships with employers. Additionally, the VETS program seeks to interact with groups and employers consistently and on an ongoing basis to promote the fact that returning veterans, as a group, offer unique advantages over many non-military employees. Those advantages include a sense of honor and duty, a high work rate, and a honed discipline and respect for authority.
Many veterans returning from combat service have experienced injuries, lost limbs, and other calamitous events. The VETS program has a special focus on these individuals "with a maximum emphasis directed toward serving those who are economically or educationally disadvantaged, including homeless veterans, and veterans with barriers to employment." The individuals benefiting most from the VETS program are identified through contact at many local Department of Veterans Affairs offices, rehabilitation centers, veterans service organization (VSO) meetings, and military installations.
After identifying veterans with specific needs, many are referred to other organizations that provide further assistance that the VETS program may not directly offer. VETS has working partnerships with such groups as the National Veterans Technical Assistance Center (NVTAC), which assists the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Programs (HVRP) to "help homeless veterans find meaningful and sustainable employment through a mix of approaches—from leveraging benefit and education resources to building partnerships with growth and green industries."
Other groups and programs included in VETS's collaborative network are the Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program, Homeless Female Veterans Program, Homeless Veterans with Families Program, and the Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Services (DOL-VETS). These partnerships extend VETS's reach and ensure veterans can access specialized services tailored to their circumstances.
VETS is certainly not the only program directed toward assisting returning veterans in acclimating back into civilian life, nor is it the only one that focuses on finding jobs for those veterans. It is a program that has been effective in accomplishing its goals and objectives in an efficient manner by providing assistance such as helping veterans obtain the correct licensing and certification needed for employment in a number of areas.
VETS employees collaborate with groups such as the Professional Certification Advisory Board and the Professional Certification and Licensing Advisory Committee. They also assist veterans in obtaining their GI educational benefits to help pay for the education needed for licensing and certification.
"Summary of VETS effectiveness and resource provision"
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