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Over the years, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Defense
(DoD) have worked closely together on issues related to servicemembers’
transition to the civilian labor force. Both Departments have recognized that
while the objective of education, training, and experience obtained during an
individual’s military service is to provide tangible benefits for the nation’s defense,
those skills can also contribute significantly to the civilian workforce.
In today’s global economy, our nation needs an increasingly skilled workforce.
As part of the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative, DOL has been
working closely with business and industry to identify those skills and
occupations that are in high demand. DOL has also been working with the state
and local workforce investment systems, community colleges, economic
development agencies and industry to target job training toward actual
employment opportunities. This is all part of DOL’s commitment to help
American workers obtain good jobs at good wages with solid career paths in
order to leave no worker behind. And there is no more deserving or more
valuable group of American workers than our nation’s servicemembers and veterans.
The civilian workforce increasingly relies upon credentialing as a way to regulate
entry into certain occupations and to promote accountability for performance and
public safety. Its value to the military is also being increasingly recognized.
Credentialing offers professional growth and development opportunities for
individuals in the service and has been used by the military services for both
recruiting and retention. Civilian credentialing can be viewed as an opportunity
for servicemembers transitioning to the civilian workforce to demonstrate to
employers the comparability and value of their military education, training, and
experience.
Occupational credentialing is an official recognition of a process of meeting a set
of defined standards, generally through education, training, experience, and
testing. Licensure, certification, and Registered Apprenticeships are the primary
types of occupational credentialing:
Licensure – Licenses are granted by government organizations to regulate the
practice of a profession. A license is a mandatory credential.
Certification – Certifications are granted by industry stakeholders to attest to an
individual’s attainment of knowledge and skills. A certification is a
voluntary credential, but often required or preferred by employers.
Apprenticeship – Registered Apprenticeship is a training system, combining
on-the-job learning and related instruction, in which workers learn
the practical and theoretical aspects of a skilled occupation leading
to a nationally recognized Certificate of Completion of
Apprenticeship.
This report outlines the process by which servicemembers can be credentialed
and identifies six key steps within that process:
1. Identification of certifications relevant to military occupational
specialties. Civilian occupations related to military occupational specialties
are identified along with relevant certifications. A crosswalk using DoD’s
Defense Manpower Data Center and DOL’s Occupational Information
Network (O*NET) facilitates this process.
2. Comparability analysis identifies gaps between military education,
training, and experience and civilian credentialing requirements. The
Army’s GI to Jobs program and the U.S. Military Apprenticeship Program
(USMAP) are examples of programs developed to identify potential gaps.
3. Servicemembers address knowledge, education, or experience gaps,
taking advantage of resources available to them while in the service.
This includes educational resources that are offered to military
servicemembers, such as the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC)
programs offered by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines and the
Community College of the Air Force (CCAF). It also includes financial
resources, such as tuition assistance and the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB).
4. Servicemembers complete required exams. Completion of exams is
facilitated by the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support
(DANTES) agreements with selected civilian credentialing agencies that allow
exams to be given by military officials at or near military bases.
5. Servicemembers provide documentation to credentialing agency. The
services offer a variety of methods of documenting military training and
experience, including the Army American Council on Education Registry
Transcripts (AARTS), the Sailor and Marine American Council on Education
Registry Transcripts (SMARTS), and the CCAF transcripts. All services also
provide transitioning military personnel with a DD Form 214 – Certificate of
Release or Discharge from Active Duty, documenting military experiences.
6. Servicemembers obtain credential. Servicemembers are increasingly
being encouraged to obtain credentials during their military service and some
services offer promotion incentives for servicemembers who do so.
This report also provides a chart summarizing each of these steps in the process
of credentialing a servicemember, along with the specific and differing ways each
of the military services addresses the steps and the relevant civilian
organizations or initiatives that support the process. This chart can be found in
Chapter 2, Figure 3.
The military services have made significant strides in addressing civilian
credentialing, primarily through the following five approaches:
1. Mapping military occupations to their civilian equivalents using information
available on civilian licensure and certifications; developing an analysis of skill
gaps and identifying paths to fill those skill gaps.
2. Providing opportunities for servicemembers to register with a federally-
approved Registered Apprenticeship program while serving in the military.
3. Using civilian/commercial training, in place of military training, which results in
a portable civilian credential in equivalent positions.
4. Obtaining civilian academic credit for military training through an equivalency
process managed by the American Council on Education.
5. Promoting educational development resulting in academic degrees.
Even with these accomplishments however, more needs to be done. The gaps
that exist between requirements for civilian occupational credentials and the
world class education, training, and experience provided by the military, continue
to make it difficult for transitioning military to make a smooth entry into the
appropriate civilian sector employment.
In addition, the complexity of the civilian credentialing process presents many
challenges for both military and civilian individuals seeking a credential. These
challenges include:
- Multitude of Participants: There is no centralized oversight of civilian
credentialing. For most civilian occupations, there is no single entity
responsible for all of the aspects of credentialing.
- Lack of Accreditation of Certification Agencies and Uniform
Standards: The accreditation of certification programs is not as prevalent
as is accreditation of educational institutions. While there are several
major bodies that accredit certification programs, only a relatively small
number of certification agencies or programs chose to go through the
accreditation process. There has been little research to ascertain the
economic value of specific certifications in terms of employment
advantage in the labor market or the value assigned to them by business
and industry.
- Lack of Centralized Information on Certification Requirements:
There is no single, centralized source of information on civilian
credentialing requirements across occupations.
Additional challenges to credentialing the servicemember include statutory fiscal
constraints. Insufficient legal authority exists for the Armed Forces to expend
appropriated funds for servicemembers to acquire civilian/commercial
occupational credentials. For example, absent specific statutory authority,
appropriated funds may not generally be used to pay for commercial
certifications, although appropriated funds may be used to pay for commercially
contracted training courses that include an examination leading to credentials if
the examination logically relates to the training and is part of the purchase price
of the course “package.” Reserve forces face additional constraints.
But even with these constraints and challenges, the credentialing picture for our
servicemembers transitioning into the civilian workforce has improved markedly
with the current and continuing programs of each of the military services, and the
cooperative efforts between the Departments of Labor and Defense.
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