New Employment Initiatives for Veterans
The Gold Card provides unemployed post-9/11 era veterans with the intensive and follow-up services they need to succeed in today's job market. The Gold Card initiative is a joint effort of the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS).
An eligible veteran can present the Gold Card at his/her local One-Stop Career Center to receive enhanced intensive services including up to six months of follow-up. The enhanced in-person services available for Gold Card holders at local One-Stop Career Centers may include:
- Job readiness assessment, including interviews and testing;
- Development of an Individual Development Plan (IDP);
- Career guidance through group or individual counseling that helps veterans in making training and career decisions;
- Provision of labor market, occupational, and skills transferability information that inform educational, training, and occupational decisions;
- Referral to job banks, job portals, and job openings;
- Referral to employers and registered apprenticeship sponsors;
- Referral to training by WIA-funded or third party service providers; and
- Monthly follow-up by an assigned case manager for up to six months.
Eligible veterans can print a Gold Card here.
On My Next Move for Veterans (www.MyNextMove.org/vets) veterans will find a simple and quick search engine where they enter their prior military experience (branch of service and military occupation code or title) and link to the information they need to explore information on civilian careers and related training, including information they can use to write resumes that highlight related civilian skills. In addition, My Next Move for Veterans contains a link to an online assessment, the O*NET Interest Profiler, which provides results comparable to the Strong Interest Inventory being used in the new Transition Assistance Program (TAP). Veterans who have not received an interest assessment as part of TAP can access and take this interest assessment online from a link in the lower right-hand corner of My Next Move for Veterans or directly at: http://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip.
The Veterans Job Bank Search Widget is the latest tool developed by NRD.gov to help streamline the job search process for the military and Veteran communities. An easy to implement feature that can be added to any website, the Veterans Job Bank Search Widget gives users the ability to search for jobs from thousands of military-friendly employers worldwide based on keyword, military occupation code (MOC) and/or location. As with the NRD State Widget and Search Widget, the Veterans Job Bank Search Widget is maintenance free and automatically updates as jobs are posted by employers.
Employers who would like to participate in the Veterans Job Bank initiative can visit our Instructions for Employer Participation.
In addition, DOL has joined forces with Microsoft to provide veterans in communities across the Seattle, Washington, San Diego, California, Houston, Texas; Northern Virginia; and Jacksonville, Florida regions with vouchers for no-cost training that can lead to important industry recognized credentials. Each area will receive 1,000 vouchers per year for two years, totaling 10,000 vouchers. In addition, Microsoft will provide in- person support to ensure veterans and their spouses are successful in their training and certification, and the local workforce areas will help connect the veterans and their spouses to potential employers in their area. For more information about this initiative, including where the vouchers will be distributed, visit http://www.microsoft.com/veterans.
