Leaders in the manufacturing industry, and Lt. Dan, got together Monday morning to announce the Get Skills To Work initiative. The plan is intended to help the more than 700.000 unemployed vets start filling the 600,000 empty positions in manufacturing.
Over a series of three panel discussions at Milk Studios in New York, business leaders--many of whom are veterans themselves--explained the four main points of the program.
The first panel, led by Tom Brokaw of NBC news and including leaders of the initiative's founding companies--GE, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Alcoa--introduced the nuts and bolts of the plan: accelerate training, translate military experience, empower employers, and give hands-on training.
At GetSkillstoWork.org, veterans can take a skills assessment. If they find they're ready to go to work, the site will create an electronic badge that the veteran can post to LinkedIn or the Get Skills to Work job search page, and find a job.
If it turns out the veteran needs more training, the site will direct them toward a technical school or community college, or possibly an apprenticeship. The "Right Skills Now" program, debuting at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, near GE Aviation's hub in Cincinnati, Ohio, aims to provide accelerated training with nationally accepted certificates, in case someone who graduates in Ohio winds up moving to Texas, said Dr. O'dell Moreno Owens, president of Cincinnati State, during one of the later panels.
The chief skill that translates best from the military to manufacturing, mentioned over and over during the course of the day, is team work. Every person on every panel brought it up. Also desired are problem-solving skills, which service members display every day, said Lionel Hamilton, GE Aviation Operations leader, who served five years in the Marine Corps and is now a pilot in the Army National Guard.
Hamilton spoke during a panel led by Gary Sinise, actor and leaf on a family tree filled with veterans. His foundation, the Gary Sinise Foundation, is working to promote the training program. The actor's panel focused mostly on transitioning troops, and making sure they know they have valuable skills.
Veterans going through programs like Cincinnati State's, which the the founders hope to replicate in other small cities, will likely have to use their Post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits. Apprenticeships and other company-run training programs will be funded by the individual companies.
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