{"id":62813,"date":"2021-06-17T16:55:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T16:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/17\/need-a-job-post-covid-va-focused-on-expanding-current-programs-not-creating-new-ones\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:16:29","slug":"need-a-job-post-covid-va-focused-on-expanding-current-programs-not-creating-new-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/education-transition\/2021\/06\/17\/need-a-job-post-covid-va-focused-on-expanding-current-programs-not-creating-new-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Need a job? Post-COVID, VA focused on expanding current programs, not creating new ones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veterans Affairs officials aren\u2019t pushing for new job training programs to help counter lingering employment challenges from the coronavirus pandemic, but they are eyeing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/education-transition\/2021\/05\/04\/va-opens-new-rapid-retraining-program-for-thousands-of-vets-who-lost-jobs-due-to-pandemic\/\" target=\"_blank\">expansion of existing ones<\/a> as demand grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI see a real opportunity here for us to take really effective programming and test it even further,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2021\/06\/15\/senator-vows-to-hold-up-va-leadership-nominees-until-department-provides-info-on-toxic-exposures-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\">VA Secretary Denis McDonough<\/a> told reporters in a press call this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cVET TEC is a good example. It\u2019s working well, the president is asking for additional funding. That\u2019s a concrete example of something that is proven and now we can grow it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 380,000 veterans filed for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/education-transition\/2021\/06\/04\/veterans-unemployment-saw-another-big-drop-in-may\/\" target=\"_blank\">unemployment benefits<\/a> last month, almost two-thirds lower than the 1.1 million who requested that assistance in the first few weeks of the pandemic in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/education-transition\/2021\/06\/02\/va-wants-more-money-to-expand-popular-tech-training-program-for-job-seeking-vets\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/software-factory.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA wants more money to expand popular tech training program for job-seeking vets<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Officials estimate the VET TEC program will run out of money in July because of its popularity.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the jobless figure is still up about 100,000 veterans from pre-pandemic levels, a source of concern for lawmakers and advocates looking to ensure that troops leaving the ranks in recent months or later this year have the tools needed to succeed in civilian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, VA officials began accepting applications for a new congressionally-authorized rapid retaining program for veterans who lost their jobs because of pandemic closures and restrictions. VA officials said they have approved a few thousand applications so far. The program is capped at 17,000 individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the department has already seen high demand for its Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses (VET TEC) program, and late last month requested a nearly threefold increase in that $45 million pilot program in next year\u2019s budget to keep up with demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McDonough said those existing programs, combined with other Department of Labor initiatives focused on veterans and the GI Bill benefits used annually by tens of thousands of veterans, provide a solid base of options to help get veterans into well-paying jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, the department is focused on finding ways to improve and broaden those existing efforts, not to add new programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWith our VA data strategy, I hope we can start to see more anonymized information to show the impact of these programs over time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then we can prioritize where we might make investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[Veterans employment] continues to be a priority for the president, and I think we\u2019ll be in a position through the generation of additional data to make [our programs] more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said he expects the biggest boosts for veteran employment this year to come from broader job creation programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Joe Biden\u2019s infrastructure proposals, for example, are expected to add thousands of new positions in manufacturing, construction and government contracting work \u2014 all economic sectors with large numbers of former military members.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/education-transition\/2021\/05\/04\/va-opens-new-rapid-retraining-program-for-thousands-of-vets-who-lost-jobs-due-to-pandemic\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP21097664496181.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA opens new rapid retraining program for thousands of vets who lost jobs due to pandemic<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Eligible vets could receive a year of tuition and other financial support to learn a new career.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But advocates said analysis of the existing veterans specific programs will also be key in ensuring that they are getting the extra attention they may need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re very encouraged by what we\u2019ve seen so far,\u201d said Patrick Murray, director of the National Legislative Service for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, to members of the Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think transparent, regular reporting about those programs would help. Let us know where we need to double down. We\u2019re gonna invest in programs that are going to put people back to work, put food on the table. So it\u2019s important for us to know exactly how successful those [current] programs are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VA Secretary Denis McDonough said officials want to plus-up current offerings for post-pandemic employment help rather than try to launch new initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,7,23,89,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222],"class_list":["post-62813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-home","category-middle-column","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"S6EW76FPGJBTHLQ2Z5HBSSEAYI","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/2021\/06\/17\/need-a-job-post-covid-va-focused-on-expanding-current-programs-not-creating-new-ones\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Need a job? 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