A bill introduced in Congress would give service members separating from the military a form with past qualifications and training that they can show to civilian employers.
Each year, nearly 200,000 men and women leave military service and return to life as civilians, according to the Department of Labor. After hanging up their uniforms and returning to civilian life, veterans can face challenges as they try to leverage their military experience in the private sector. In August, the unemployment rate among veterans was 3.4%, an increase from 3% in July but a decrease from 3.6% in the previous year.
The bill, titled “Translating Military Skills into Civilian Jobs Act of 2024,” was introduced Tuesday by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and co-sponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and aims to give troops one less thing to think about when they’re moving on to a new chapter in their lives.
Service members would automatically receive a “competency record” along with their DD-214 during the separation process under the bill. The proposed plan is different from other programs where troops have to opt in or wait at least a year to get their own records, an official from Rosen’s office said. The record would include every course a service member graduated from and any training certifications and qualifications they earned for their military occupational specialty.
The legislation is identical to a provision that passed as part of the Senate version of the fiscal year 2025 annual defense authorization bill and has bipartisan support, the official said. A spokesperson for Rosen said they introduced the bill to “bolster the chances” of it remaining in the annual defense bill through House and Senate negotiations.
“It’s really just to ensure that everyone has a piece of paper that outlines everything that they had done in the military for their certifications and training so that they can then provide that to a future employer for them to determine if that meets the job responsibilities,” the official said.
The bill is one more effort to improve transitioning to civilian life after the military — an issue that Congress and the Department of Defense have tried to assist in with various programs and policies intended to make the move easier and more successful for veterans.
The bill would also require the secretary of defense to report on the bill’s implementation, the usefulness of the records and recommendations for improvement to Congress. The report would also include feedback from states and employers on the information provided in the competency records.
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Some public and private sector programs already exist to fill gaps in veteran employment, such as Hire Our Heroes, a nonprofit that conducts mock interviews and resume writing workshops with separating service members.
Additionally, the competency record is a similar concept to the Joint Services Transcript which provides documentation of professional military education, training and occupation experiences that service members can use to apply to colleges and universities. The transcript allows educational institutions to assess whether previous military education modules and certifications can apply for pre-requisites and other general education credits.
There’s also the Department of Defense’s Credentialing Opportunities On-Line, COOL, which began in 2002 when the Army established their own version. The other services followed suit in later years. The program helps service members find information on certifications and licenses from their military occupations that can transfer over or apply to their civilian careers.
Rosen’s bill would instruct the Pentagon to give service members their records as a default upon separating without the need to request them and would eliminate the hassle for active duty troops and veterans — a complaint from some transitioning members about existing programs, the official with Rosen’s office said.
Another transition tool from the Defense Department is the SkillBridge program which allows service members to participate in civilian job training up to 180 days before they leave service. A Government Accountability Office report from August found inconsistent data tracking among the military branches, making it difficult to know whether the program is successful or meeting service members’ needs.
The lack of data for monitoring the Defense Department’s military-civilian transition programs is an issue that the GAO has highlighted in previous reports and has recommended better tracking for more efficiency and veteran success.
“By taking steps to build appropriate evidence about program effectiveness, DoD will be better positioned to demonstrate whether the programs are achieving their intended results and assure that resources are being targeted appropriately,” the GAO said.