Local organizations help veterans to find employment after service

DELAWARE – With Veterans Day just around the corner, local veteran organizations are working to highlight an issue that many might not realize is happening.

“When military service members come out of the military, a lot of times they might feel that what they have experience in and the training that they receive doesn’t translate, or parlay into a well-paid employment opportunity,” said Delaware’s director of Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS), under the United States Department of Labor, David Rich.

Rich says veterans can often struggle with finding employment when they get out of the service. He adds that’s because things like writing a resume or applying for a civilian job – are not what you train for and work towards when you’re serving in the military.

“One of those barriers is how they communicate and translate what they’ve done in the military into what’s going on in the civilian sector, and how their experiences translate,” said Rich.

Programs like VETS are working to connect veterans with employers. Rich says a big part of that is building veterans’ confidence in the transition to civilian life.

“We hear all the time ‘Thank you for your service.’ We appreciate it, because we know there was a time when service members weren’t thanked,” he said. “The best thing, with Veterans Day coming up, is to make those connections between the veterans and employers, and really thank them for their service by helping them to be able to provide for their families.”

VETS works in partnership with American Job Centers to help connect veterans with potential employers. There are four of those centers in Delaware. They’re located in Wilmington, Newark, Dover, and Georgetown. The centers provide free one-on-one resume writing, and workshops that help veterans develop skills like getting prepared for interviews and information about how what employers expect from civilian employees. Veterans can also find resources on educational opportunities.

Rich says all of those resources are vital to ensuring that veterans continue being successful in life after the military.

“The way that we can thank our veterans for their services is by really assisting, helping, and reaching out to make sure that no man is left behind, no woman is left behind, no service member is left behind,” he said.