STATEMENT OF JAMES B. HUBBARD, DIRECTOR

NATIONAL ECONOMICS COMMISSION

THE AMERICAN LEGION

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON BENEFITS

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS

U.S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ON

VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT: CREDENTIALING (LICENSURE, CERTIFICATION, ACCREDITATION, AND APPRENTICESHIP) REQUIREMENTS

September 9, 1999

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing concerning a specific employment barrier faced by recently separated veterans.  Although these outstanding young men and women possess excellent vocational skills, which are easily transferable to civilian careers, the lack of “official” recognition of their vocational training hampers their smooth transition from active-duty military service to meaningful civilian employment.  Honorable military service should advance patriots’ vocational opportunities rather than stymie their employability. 

There is an important question that needs to be asked:  “If we are properly training young men and women in military career fields, shouldn’t they be the very best qualified possible?”  Shouldn’t a combat solider with a sucking chest wound know that the medic treating him is a certified emergency medical technician?  Shouldn’t a combat pilot involved in a dogfight know that a certified aircraft mechanic works on her plane?  Shouldn’t military members working in command center know that certified electricians do the electrical maintenance?  Why aren’t military air traffic controllers certified by the Federal Aviation Administration?  Is this too much to ask or expect especially when an individual’s life and safety may be at stake?

Leaving active duty military service is a landmark event in one’s life.  It involves decisions that will affect veterans and their families for the rest of their days.  Every recently separated veteran faces similar challenges: they need a job, they need housing, and they need health care.   Meaningful employment is essential to meeting these challenges.  Removal of a paper-barrier will help make a fully qualified, recently separated veteran job ready.

The armed forces of the United States releases more than 220,000 people from active duty each year and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  Historically, these veterans are some of the most productive members in society and should be provided every opportunity to enjoy the inalienable right that they protected and defended.    Over 50 percent of recently separated veterans are married.  They receive training on  leadership, management, and teamwork.  They have an excellent work ethic; reliability, promptness, dependability, personal accountability, and attendance are essentials in the military lifestyle.  They are certifiably drug free.  In short, they are a valuable national resource.

In the course of pursuing the basic mission of national defense, the military services produce significant coincidental benefits to the economy: support of scientific research, infrastructure development, and investment in human capital through extensive military personnel training activities.  As of the end of Fiscal Year 1999, there will be approximately 1.4 million members of the military services on active duty.  Further, there will be almost 950,000 members in the Selected Reserves.  Even with the defense drawdown complete, more than 220,000 members of the active component leave the military each year.  Clearly, these exiting service members offer excellent skills and experience to the civilian sector.

The military is a selective employer and represents an unparalleled educational and training institution.  These employees live under an entirely different set of laws, the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, than other Americans are governed.  They can be punished for violations of dress code, personal appearance, handling of personal finances and their personal conduct on and off duty.  The majority of jobs to which today's service members are assigned have civilian counterparts.  After all, the military community is just a mirror of every other community.  A recent study by the Commission on Servicemembers’ and Veterans’ Transition Assistance showed that 38 percent of separating service members (over 83,000 people) have experience (both classroom and on-the-job-training) in fields with direct application to civilian life where some type of credential is required.

The health care career field is an especially important occupation category in the military services.  In 1994 over 21 percent of officers and 6 percent of enlisted personnel were engaged in health-related specialties.  Equipment repair and maintenance specialties, including aircraft maintenance, are another large categories, accounting for 20 percent of enlisted personnel and 10 percent of officers.  Service members in this group of occupations maintain and repair aircraft, trucks, automobiles, specialized vehicles, wire communications, missiles, precision equipment, power generators, and other engines and equipment.  Only one in six enlisted members serve in purely combat jobs, whereas one in four serve in high-tech jobs in fields like electronic equipment repair, communications, or other allied specialties.

Those who are separating from the armed services have attended some of the finest technical and professional training schools in the world.  Military education covers a broad spectrum of vocational career fields to include health care, police and investigative work, electronics, computers, engineering, drafting, air traffic control, nuclear power plant operation, mechanics, carpentry, and many other fields.  In the civilian workforce, many of these career fields require some type of license or certificate.  Often, this license or certificate requires training that is comparable or identical to the military standards in armed forces training programs.  So why can’t an active duty service member that completes professional military training earn the appropriate licenses or certificates rendered to civilians that complete similar training?

Since most military personnel will eventually leave the service and enter the civilian labor market, the benefits of professional military training are particularly critical to their continued productivity and competitiveness in the civilian labor force. Service members should be able to expect to use vocational skills gained during military service to their advantage when they re-enter the civilian labor market.  Data from a recently completed study of Army veterans, for instance, found that nearly 70 percent rated the opportunity to gain job skills as an important or very important reason for their enlisting in the military.  The all-volunteer military depends on perception of the value of career-relevant training as an important recruitment incentive.  Any barriers to the transferability of military job training to comparable civilian careers discourage potential enlistees and significantly hinder recruiting objectives.

In the early 1990s, a meeting was convened at the Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service to attempt a first look at the issue of the recognition and transfer of military training to the civilian work force.  The meeting exposed what seemed to be an insurmountable complexity of skills, jobs, training regimens, licenses, certificates, apprenticeship programs, and other nuances.  Nothing came of the meeting, except that a seed had been planted in the minds of some who thought there might be a way to solve this puzzle.

In early 1996, The American Legion approached the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans Employment and Training with a proposal to study those vocational skills for which the armed services provide training and for which a license or certificate is required to work in this field in the civilian economy.  The study was limited to enlisted health care specialties and aircraft maintenance and repair.  These two career fields were picked because governmental entities govern their regulating (States regulate health care, while the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission regulate aircraft maintenance and repair).  That study was completed and published in August 1997.  It identified the specific career fields in each category and identified the credentialing agency concerned.  More importantly, since the ultimate goal of this exercise was to facilitate the transition of military people into civilian society, the study made five specific recommendations for making this transition easier:

·        Military training commands should provide service members with information regarding applicable licensure and certification requirements while they are still in training.  The service members should also be provided with information regarding education and training resources available to them to meet those requirements during their period of military service.

·        Military and civilian agencies involved in the provision of transition services should ensure that information is made available on applicable licensure and certification requirements.

·        For those service members who choose to seek licensure or certification while in the military, the military services should provide the maximum accommodation and support possible to help them attain the appropriate credentials.

·        Information should be provided to national certification bodies and to state and federal licensure bodies regarding the standard types of documentation of military training and experience that are available to support requests by veterans for credit toward licensure or certification requirements based upon their military training and experience.

·        The military should stay abreast of adaptations to credentialing standards, which undergo frequent modification, and make every effort possible to accommodate new standards.

A copy of the executive summary of The American Legion Study is attached to this statement.

Copies of the study were circulated to the Secretaries of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Commandants of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.  Copies were also provided to the Congressional Veterans’ Affairs Committees and the Veterans Employment and Training Service.

During the time the study was ongoing, Congress created the Commission on Servicemembers’ and Veterans’ Transition Assistance.  Early on, The American Legion approached Commission staff and members with the idea of looking at credentialing.  The Commission then funded a business case of all military occupations with some applicability to civilian life.  This study identified a total of 105 credentialed occupations for which the military provides training and for which a license or certificate is required to work in the profession in civilian life.  As a result of the Commission funded work, we now know the scope of the problem.  It affects approximately 81,000 veterans who separate from the armed forces every year.  A copy of the executive summary of the Commission business case has been made available to the Subcommittee as a separate document.

The American Legion study had one other effect.  It attracted the attention of the Deputy Secretary of Labor who, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, formed a Federal Task Force made up of representatives of twenty-seven Federal agencies, which either have credentialing programs or have an interest in such programs.  An interim report issued by this Task Force identified some specific barriers to a smooth transition experienced by separating service members.  It further identified some specific cases where separate services had begun to address some of these credentialing issues.  A copy of the executive summary of the Interim Report is attached to this statement.  A summary of the barriers follows:

Identification of Barriers to Certification, Licensure and Credentialing

·        DOD Perceptions Regarding Effect of Credentialing on Retention

Perception of a negative effect on retention

·        Military Personnel’s Lack of Information on Credentialing Issues

Military Personnel’s Lack of Awareness of Credentialing Barriers

Lack of Systematic Dissemination of Information Credentialing Resources

·        Impediments Faced by Military Personnel Seeking Credentialing

Geographic Dispersion of Military Personnel/Access to Education and Training

Fees for Certification/Licensure Exams

Problems Surrounding the Use of the Montgomery GI Bill Funds in Lieu of Traditional Tuition Assistance while Still on Active Duty

·        Civilian Credentialing Boards’ Lack of Information on Military Training and Experience

Lack of Recognition of Military Training and Experience

Information Exchange – Differing Terminology and Packaging of Information

Documentation of Military Training and Experience

Exchange of Transcripts between Navy/Marine Corps/Army and Civilian Credentialing Boards

·        Barriers Related to Obtaining Union Membership

Union recruiting linked to local economy

·        Federal Government Impediments

Redundant security background checks cause delay

Underlying much of this discussion is the perception by some Department of Defense officials that preparing service members for civilian jobs after their active duty service will, in fact, hasten the departure of service members thereby raising training and recruiting costs.  Perception is all it is at this point.  When a person makes a career decision and enlists in the military, it is for a definite period of time.  At the point of reenlistment, the service member must make another career decision.  Employment opportunities in the private sector will be weighed against the career opportunities of military service.  The Department of Defense is doing a disservice when service members, after receiving military occupational training, feels their vocational skills are inadequate to find meaningful employment in the private sector.  An outstanding military aircraft mechanic should also make an outstanding civilian aircraft mechanic.  In reality, every military service member is being prepared for a civilian job.

The best way for the Department of Defense to prevent the early departure of well-trained, highly qualified service members is to provide competitive compensation and benefit packages that encourages reenlistment.  It is in the best interest of the Department of Defense to be the Nation’s best vocational trainer.  That reputation will make many of their recruitment and retention woes disappear.  Military service offers job security, an intangible esprit de corps, and comradery that is unmatched by the private sector.

The best recruiters for the military are its active duty service members, Reservists, and veterans.  If their military service is a positive experience, they will be strongest supporters of military service.  But if their military service was bad, they will be the most vocal opponents of military service.  Often, the difference boils down to whether expectations were achieved.  If a person enlisted for vocational training, were they marketable in the private sector.  If a person enlisted for educational benefits, were those benefits enough to achieve their educational goals.  If a person enlisted for a career and its retirement benefits, were the promises made fulfilled? 

The issue of transferability of military training to civilian careers has become most acute in recent years as military downsizing has increased the flow of former military service members into the civilian labor market.  The military services have responded to the need to assist service members in the transition to civilian careers through a number of initiatives:

     Transition Services: Transition programs and services instituted in response to the 1990-95 drawdown of forces, and continued thereafter, offer post-service career counseling and employment preparation so that veterans can better adjust to the private sector and communicate their job qualifications.  The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) was developed and implemented by the Department of Labor and today is operational in over 40 states, serving tens of thousands of participants annually.  TAP comprises a seminar on job search skills and career opportunities.  TAP seminars are independent of and augment other services such as veterans' benefits advice and assistance, and relocation services typically provided by Education and Family Centers, as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

     Army Career and Alumni Program: The Army established the Army Career and Alumni Program (ACAP) to augment transition and job assistance services.  One of the distinctive features of ACAP is the Job Assistance Center (JAC), which provides job assistance seminars and workshops.  Clients are instructed and receive practice regarding skills relevant to employment and occupational trends, sources, networks, and application procedures and process.

     Community College of the Air Force: This program assists enlisted personnel in the Air Force to obtain civilian-recognized academic credit for military training and experience.

There are some civilian institutions which have recognized the value of military training and have sought to recruit active duty and separating service members by offering to “fill the gaps” between what is taught in the service and what is required to work in a profession in civilian life.  I would like to highlight two of these institutions.  Clayton College and State University located outside of Atlanta is one of the leading institutions using what is now known as distance learning.  With a computer and a modem, students can access lectures, notes, converse on line or via e-mail with instructors, take exams, use library research facilities and do most if not all of the things expected of a university student.  And every student at Clayton gets a state-of-the-art-laptop when he or she enrolls.

Regents College, part of the New York State University system, awards college credits for training in certain military occupational specialties based on approval by the American Council on Education.  Thus, members of the United States Army or the United States Marine Corps will receive credit for military training in career fields directly applicable to civilian life.  This goes a long way toward bridging the gap between the semester hour system used in academia and the block of instruction system used by the armed forces.  More of this cooperation is necessary.  And more colleges and universities need to adopt the Regents College system.

Despite the intrinsic benefits of military training and experience and despite efforts of military authorities to provide transition assistance, a smooth transition to the civilian labor market is often difficult.  Among the obstacles to full employment of veterans are occupational distribution differences between the military and civilian world of work, certification and licensure hurdles in civilian occupations, subtle and not so subtle inconsistencies between the military and civilian work environments, and reluctance on the part of civilian employers to accept military training (measured as “blocks of instruction”) as equivalent to employer-provided training or civilian academic training (measured as “semester hours”).

Mr. Chairman, The American Legion believes that the process now underway on an ad hoc basis must become more deliberate on the part of all of the State and Federal agencies involved.  To do this we respectfully suggest this Subcommittee seek answers to the following questions:

1.      Which Federal agency should be in charge of coordinating the governmental efforts in this important area?  Where will the database on MOS/AFSC vs. college credits reside?

2.      Where will be the repository of information for agencies, organizations, and individuals on credentialing?

3.      How will Federal and State agencies work with credentialing organizations and agencies and with employers to eliminate this barrier to the employment of separating service members?

4.      What role will an expanded GI educational benefits program have in helping service members fill in the gaps in skill requirements?

5.      What effect will a deliberate credentialing effort on the part of armed forces training schools have on recruiting – on retention?  In our opinion well-constructed studies are needed.  Who will do them?

6.      Is the current Federal Task Force effective in addressing this problem?  If not, how can it be made more effective?

7.      What is the role of the educational institutions in credentialing?

8.      What is the role of apprenticeship programs in credentialing?

9.      What incentives can be made available to the business community to train veterans by filling in skills gaps?

10.  How can Federal agencies that issue credentials such as the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Aviation Administration come to recognize military training?

11.  What is the role of the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialists and Local Veterans Employment Representatives, now working in the public labor exchange in the credentialing effort?

12.  Is this problem more a function of military training or the ability of credentialing bodies to understand and correctly evaluate military training as it relates to the credential sought?

13.  Would a national conference, attended by interested parties from the military, VA, Congressional, state and private sectors be a useful step in improving the dialogue?

The American Legion believes that the proper place for an office that would serve as the place to access any and all information on the subject of credentialing should be in the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) at the Department of Labor.  This agency has the expertise on the staff to properly coordinate all of the information flowing from all of the sources within and without the government.  They have successfully coordinated the activities of the Federal Task Force mentioned earlier and will continue to do so.  In addition, VETS staffs the Advisory Committee on Veterans Employment and Training, a body with a charter which can be interpreted to included credentialing as an issue.

The American Legion also feels that VETS should also plan and execute a national conference on the subject of credentialing.  They should do so by forming a steering committee with representation from all interested parties.  The goal of the conference will be to seek agreement on all of the subjects raised in the questions posed above.  Such a conference should be held not later than September 30, 2000.  Funding for this conference can be made available through registration fees and through some of the discretionary money in Section 168 of the Work Force Investment Act (formerly Title IV-C of JTPA).

Mr. Chairman, I have reason to believe that as a result of this hearing, you will hear that a number of things are underway and that a number of organizations are undertaking actions which will help this problem.  The American Legion applauds these efforts and will make every effort to assist and enhance them where possible.

What you will also hear is that some of these efforts are in the stage of pilot programs.  Pilots can be useful, but more needs to be and can be done.  What is happening now is a bit chaotic.  Order needs to be brought into chaos.  We sincerely believe that this hearing will be the beginning of that process.

Thank you again for holding this hearing on this very important subject. 

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