By Dom Clementi, Military and Veterans Editor
Honoring service. Covering community.
Photo: by Christopher Burns on Unsplash
Friends,
My military journey convinced me that it is critical for those departing military service and who plan to transition into a civilian career – probably most all of us – to be fully aware of all the educational, vocational and job preparation resources available to us. There are many benefits, in fact, but these benefits and beacons of knowledge are spread far and wide. Sometimes you simply stumble across them if you read your email carefully enough. This week I would like to introduce you to an organization called Veterans Transition Support or VTS, which I discovered by reading one of the updates that the VA — formally, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — sent me a couple of months ago.
VTS is a good organization to know - it is an all-volunteer nonprofit founded in 2014 and based in San Diego, CA. They happily provide assistance in the areas of counseling on GI Bill benefits, VA disability filing, VA home loans and more. Their strong suit seems to be support in the form of direct education assistance: a free OSHA 10 safety certification, a no-cost Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt (with a low-cost Green Belt option for veterans ready to go further), and a year of free Coursera classes that earn certificates in a number of high demand areas.
Frankly, the free and low-cost education benefits impress me most of all. As those of you in the career world nowadays know, the Information Revolution, the pace of technology and now, the advent of AI, push us, whether we like it or not, to keep learning new skills, updating our resumes every couple of months and adding badges to our LinkedIn pages. The deck does not seem to be exactly stacked in favor of the veteran, who has already given so much, so I like to see them get a leg up on the competition.
By the way, I can verify that VTS really does deliver on its promises. I signed up with them for the free year of Coursera not long ago. All it took was sharing a proof of service, such as a copy of your retiree ID, VA proof of service or so forth. They offer a wide variety of courses in many areas. I am currently taking a course from Rutgers University on Supply Chain Logistics and another from IBM on Software Engineering. VTS seems to have something useful for all veterans. If you want to find out more, go to the link below and get started:
Also, if you would like to receive Department of Veterans Affairs updates, go here:
As always, all the best to our men and women currently in uniform and to all of our veterans. Be proud of your service!
Dom Clementi is the Military and Veterans Editor at The Woodbridge Gazette. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2022 after 30 years of service. Have a resource, story, or question for Dom? Reach him at [email protected].
Honoring service. Covering community.
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