With unemployment for young military veterans more than double the rate for other people in their 20s, Maryland?s Mass Transit Administration will offer free job training to former members of the armed services.
The unemployment rate is “way too high,” U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson said during an event at which Gov. Robert Ehrlich and other state officials announced the program Monday. “It?s appalling.”
Under the program, which Ehrlich described as “the first of its kind in the nation,” veterans who have been honorably discharged or National Guard members and reservists who have been on active duty for more than six months will be eligible for job-training courses at the Mass Transit Administration.
“We hope it will become the standard across the state and the nation,” said Larry Kimble, of the MTA, who organized the program. One of the parameters he was given when MTA Administrator Lisa Dickerson gave him the assignment was that “you can?t spend a lot of money,” he said.
The veterans will be allowed to fill any vacancies in any MTA training course that has not been filled by its own employees. MTA training and development staff will also provide career counseling to the veterans.
Preference will be given to veterans with a disability. Of the 479,000 veterans living in Maryland, about 10 percent ? or about 49,000 ? have a service-connected disability.
The MTA training includes its Rhodes Scholar program in basic computer skills, office software and business writing and math lab. Core skills training includes customer service, respectful communication, financial planning and anger management.
Courses specific to mass transit include various aspects of bus maintenance and maintenance for light rail and subway cars.
Nicholson, a West Point graduate who served in Vietnam, initiated the Coming Home to Work initiative last year when the unemployment rate among young veterans was about 15 percent.
“We have made some progress, and that number has come down,” Nicholson said.
About 11 percent of the former military who are 20 to 25 years old are now unemployed, he said.
“There?s no more timely initiative” for meeting the needs of returning veterans who are “just ideal prospects” for employment, Nicholson said. “I hope we can replicate it around the country.”
For more information, see the MTA Web site at MTAMaryland.com and click on Special Bulletins under Veterans Workforce Training Program, or call 410-767-0707.
