This month’s celebration of Veterans Day may have sparked interest among employers to recruit and hire veterans. After all, many employers tout the diversity of thought and skills employees with military experience bring to the workforce. Too often, though, policies and a lack of understanding throw up barriers to bringing veterans on board. 
State licensing and certification requirements often are responsible for the barriers veterans face, but help may be on the way on those fronts. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released a toolkit to help states knock down hurdles presented by state licensure and third-party certification systems. A DOL blog post explains that the kit includes best practices, tips, and resources to accelerate initiatives from the various states to address gaps in veterans’ licensing and certification.
In addition to the toolkit from the DOL, the National Governors Association in September released a report summarizing what was learned from a demonstration project on licensing and certification requirements. The report notes that military service members undergo training that prepares them for a number of occupations.
Many of those occupational specialties have “direct or proximate equivalents” in the civilian workforce, the report says, but service members transitioning to civilian employment “might lack the relevant civilian occupational credentials required under federal or state law or by an employer to secure employment.”
Identifying barriers
The report notes that the states in the demonstration project encountered three types of barriers transitioning service members often encountered:
- Veterans who have military training and experience equivalent to that of licensed civilians often find that civilian licensing boards are not accustomed to recognizing the military documentation of their training and experience.
- Veterans who experience gaps between their military training and experience and civilian requirements may have to participate in duplicative training to attain relevant licensure or certification.
- Administrative rules and processes within civilian licensing and credentialing systems may create hurdles for veterans to obtain licensure or certification unrelated to their ability to competently provide professional services to the public.
To combat those barriers, the report says the federal government has launched initiatives to streamline credentialing and licensing for veterans, but “ultimate authority for regulating entry into most professions lies with state governments.”
States involved in the demonstration project identified three kinds of strategies to support veterans in their transition to civilian work. They are:
- Recognizing equivalent military training and experience.
- Providing accelerated training opportunities to fill gaps in military training and experience.
- Streamlining administrative requirements and processes.
The DOL’s toolkit identifies steps states can take to ease the way for transitioning service members. One of those steps involves developing a better understanding of military occupational specialties. Like state licensing boards, private-sector employers also can increase their ability to hire veterans by becoming familiar with the military occupational code (MOC) system.
States participating in the demonstration project found that they could communicate the details of military occupation descriptions to both state licensing and accrediting bodies and postsecondary educational institutions. “This translational role included generating lists of MOC that were relevant to specific civilian occupations, reviewing military training materials, and reviewing course credit recommendations for postsecondary educational institutions,” the toolkit says.
Policy changes
Employers wanting to hire veterans can help themselves by learning how military occupation descriptions may mirror their own job descriptions and by examining whether their policies and qualification requirements present barriers to job-seeking veterans.
An example of state action from the DOL’s toolkit shows how making small changes to job requirements can make a difference. The toolkit explains that the state of Minnesota passed legislation to make it easier for veterans to take the police officer exam by changing work experience requirements from five to four years to better reflect the typical length of military enlistments and tours of duty.