Looking for to chip away at a roughly 21% unemployment price for active-duty spouses, the Protection Division is holding a collection of free digital occasions by the tip of Could aimed toward serving to army spouses discover jobs.
This month’s collection of actions contains a three-day symposium devoted to profession improvement and employment preparation that ran Could 14-16; a collection of webinars, mock interviews, and one-on-one resume evaluations happening at this time by Wednesday; and digital hiring festivals Could 29-30, in accordance with Patricia Barron, deputy assistant secretary of protection for army group and household coverage.
“[As service members] go concerning the enterprise of serving our nation, the army partner goes concerning the enterprise of supporting them and supporting the household,” Barron instructed reporters throughout a digital roundtable Monday.
“Nonetheless, I can let you know that many, many army spouses … [also] need to have a profession of some kind or be employed indirectly.”
Looking for to construct upon earlier years, the theme for this month’s collection of spousal employment occasions is “Even Extra in ’24.”
“The periods embody a extra strong collection of employment-dedicated occasions than we’ve got had in earlier years,” Barron mentioned. “And so they’re actually designed to advance that distinctive profession aim {that a} army partner may need by connections and in addition networking alternatives.”
Hosted by the DOD’s Partner Training and Profession Alternatives, or SECO program, this 12 months’s symposium centered on bolstering army household readiness by concentrating on the help of spouses.
“What we attempt to do by this symposium is … [not only] equip spouses with the instruments and assets that they want; however most significantly, [provide] the connections that they will must get a job to allow them to present that basically essential second earnings.”
Particularly designed and devoted to profession improvement and employment preparation, some matters at this 12 months’s symposium included ideas for constructing a powerful resume, networking, mastering distant work, negotiation ways and extra.
Barron mentioned SECO develops instruments for annually’s symposium by counting on suggestions from the earlier 12 months’s individuals.
“We do a variety of evaluation of the form of feedback we get after we do a symposium, and we predict … ‘What else can we offer? What’s it that our spouses actually need to hear?’ And that is what we have accomplished: we have added a few of these parts to this explicit symposium,” Barron mentioned.
After a collection of mock job interviews and one-on-one resume evaluations this week, collaborating spouses will get to take part in digital hiring festivals subsequent week that join spouses with hiring managers and representatives from greater than 700 employers.
Along with this month’s collection of occasions supporting spousal employment, Barron additionally pointed to different DOD applications which can be serving to spouses discover new employment or keep their present employment.
Barron highlighted the Navy Partner Profession Accelerator Pilot program — which gives spouses with paid 12-week fellowships at employers throughout varied industries and places — as being an amazing success, noting that spouses who participated in this system’s first 12 months had an roughly 83% success price in gaining everlasting employment.
“It is simply been an amazing program,” Barron mentioned. “And to maintain it all through the years could be phenomenal.”
When it comes to army spouses with the ability to keep their present employment, Barron spoke about an modification Congress made to the Servicemembers Civil Aid Act in January of final 12 months that enables spouses to keep up their skilled licensing regardless of shifting from one jurisdiction to a different.
Barron mentioned that, whereas many states are nonetheless attempting to determine the right way to implement the brand new legislation, if there are interstate compacts concerned between the state the partner is licensed in and the state they relocate to, then the partner ought to be capable to keep their license.
“If there’s an interstate compact in that state already for that profession discipline, it takes priority over that specific legislation,” Barron mentioned. “And we’re very linked to seeing how we’re progressing with these compacts.”
Barron gave credit score to Secretary of Protection Lloyd J. Austin III for making the care of DOD personnel and their households considered one of his high three priorities.
“He focuses on this fairly a bit,” Barron mentioned. “He isn’t simply speaking the speak; he is strolling the stroll.”
Spouses all in favour of exploring assets offered by the SECO program can go to https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil/portal/.
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