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Statement
of Director,
Vocational Rehabilitation and
Counseling Service Veterans
Benefits Administration Department
of Veterans Affairs Before
the Subcommittee
on Benefits September
9, 1999 Good
morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee. It
is a pleasure for me to appear before you today to discuss with you
the ways that the Department’s two principal education, training,
and employment assistance programs deal with credentialing and
licensure, with a focus on how our apprenticeship and other on-job
training (OJT) programs assist service members and veterans
transitioning back into the economy.
Accompanying me is Mrs. Celia Dollarhide, Director of our
Education Service. I
would like to stress that VA is a strong proponent of service members
and veterans achieving the credentials they need to succeed in getting
a good job outside the military.
VA does all the law allows to provide assistance in helping
veterans to receive the training they need and to achieve suitable
employment. We do
recognize, however, that VA does have limitations on its authority,
and one of these limitations affects civilian sector credentialing of
skills learned in military service. I
would like to first speak about the assistance we can provide under
the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). Then
I will describe how the Vocational Rehabilitation Program addresses
these same issues. Finally,
I will outline our efforts on two task forces to suggest ways to widen
the scope of our activities in credentialing and licensure. Assistance Under the Montgomery GI Bill One
of the three principal forms of credentialing as indicated in the
Transition Commission report is apprenticeship and on-job training (OJT).
Veterans and eligible persons can use the Montgomery GI Bill to
achieve either apprenticeship or OJT credentialing.
However, the current law governing the MGIB does not allow VA
to reimburse a veteran for certification or licensing fees. Our
apprenticeship and OJT programs under the MGIB can assist veterans to
achieve the training required for the credentials they need. From the beginning of the MGIB, in 1985, through 1998, OJT
and apprenticeship trainees made up three percent of the total number
of veterans using their MGIB benefits.
Training under the MGIB is heavily weighted toward
college-level education programs.
This phenomenon reflects societal notions about the economic
need to have a college degree and, increasingly, the importance of a
Master's degree or first professional degree. Nevertheless,
in recent years, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has
encouraged the State Approving Agencies (SAAs) to provide more
outreach efforts in encouraging employers to offer on-job and
apprenticeship training. One
of the first fruits of this effort has been a video that the Missouri
SAA and the Missouri National Guard jointly produced.
The video encourages employers, veterans, and reservists to
participate in apprenticeship or OJT programs under the MGIB. The
National Guard uses the video as a recruitment tool. The Missouri SAA has supplemented the video with radio public
service announcements encouraging the use of OJT and apprenticeship
training. In addition,
the SAA publishes success stories of veterans using these benefits at
local companies. Due
to efforts of the SAAs, we have noticed an increase in the number of
OJT and apprenticeship trainees under the MGIB.
For example, in FY 1996, there were 6,738 trainees.
This number increased to 10,810 veterans and reservists in FY
1998, a jump of over 60 percent. Another factor that we expect will increase participation is
a provision of Public Law 105-368, enacted on November 11, 1998, that
liberalizes the approval requirements for Federal, State, and local
government OJT programs. Under
MGIB apprenticeship and OJT programs, veterans and eligible persons
receive a monthly training allowance while in the program. This training allowance is lower than the allowance for
institutional attendance, since the trainees are also receiving a wage
from their employers. The
training allowance decreases every 6 months, as the veteran becomes
more skilled in the job and earns more salary. Both
OJT and apprenticeship programs must be approved by the appropriate
SAA. In addition, there
are a number of statutory requirements to meet before making an
approval. For
OJT, the job for which the veteran or eligible person is training must
customarily require full-time training for not less than 6 months and
not more than 2 years. There
must also be a reasonable certainty that the job will be available to
the veteran or eligible person at the end of the training period. Additionally,
the wages the trainee receives at the start of the training must be at
least 50 percent of the wages paid for the target job -- the one for
which the veteran or eligible person is training.
Moreover, the trainee wages (except for Federal, State or local
government OJT programs) must increase in regular periodic increments
until, not later than the last full month of the training period, the
wages are at least 85 percent of the wages the employer pays for the
target job. As previously
mentioned, Public Law 105-368, liberalized the approval requirements
for Federal, State, and local government OJT by exempting those
programs from such wage increase requirements. For
apprenticeship training, programs may be established for VA
participation when the SAA is satisfied that the programs of
apprenticeship meet the standards of apprenticeship published by the
Secretary of Labor under section 50a of Title 29, United States Code.
In addition, the employer must provide a signed copy of the
veteran's or eligible person's training agreement to each
apprenticeship trainee. The training agreement must refer to the SAA approved
training program and wage schedule.
The course must also meet any other reasonable criteria that
the SAA may establish. There
are also promising initiatives concerning licensing and certification
coming out of the pilot programs being organized by the Department of
Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service.
Some of these initiatives need professional review by SAAs to
assure the requirements for MGIB approval are met.
The SAAs are most interested in ensuring that veterans’
military experience receives recognition when veterans are seeking
licensure or certification. In
Ohio, for example, the SAA is an active member of the Licensure and
Certification Advisory Group, which is designing specialized programs
for veterans with active duty training and experience in certain
vocational fields. This
Group is also developing outreach strategies to contact recently
discharged veterans to inform them of these programs. Assistance Under the Vocational Rehabilitation Program For
service-disabled veterans who participate in VA’s Vocational
Rehabilitation Program under chapter 31 of title 38, United States
Code, placement in an OJT or apprenticeship program often is a
training option. VA may pay for all costs associated with such training, to
include testing and licensure expenses.
Although we cannot directly credential a veteran in the
Vocational Rehabilitation Program for skills learned in service, we do
take those skills into account when we plan an individualized program
of services and assistance that will lead to the veteran getting a
suitable, well-paying job. The
Vocational Rehabilitation and Counseling (VR&C) staff may place a
veteran in an SAA approved apprenticeship or OJT program. In addition, each VR&C Officer has the authority to
develop necessary information to determine whether an employer may be
granted approval to provide a program of apprenticeship or OJT to
chapter 31, in those instances where the program has not been approved
by the SAA for MGIB purposes. In
FY 1998, VA’s VR&C Service provided training services focused on
employment outcomes to more than 53,000 veterans with disabilities.
We want to increase the number of OJT and apprenticeship
opportunities for our participants, to include both paid OJT and
apprenticeships, as well as unpaid OJT or work experience in city,
county, State or Federal entities.
We have begun an effort to make our mission better known to
employers. We expect that
greater visibility for the program will result in more employers
wanting to partner with us in offering disabled veterans opportunities
for learning on the job. In
some cases, veterans come to us already having been hired into an
apprenticeship or OJT position. In
other instances, we assist the veteran to obtain employment that
requires development of an OJT plan.
With our emphasis on employer contacts, we expect that VR&C
employment specialists and our partners -- Disabled Veterans’
Outreach Program specialists -- will generate increased interest in
training and hiring program participants.
We have the authority to develop and approve OJT programs
lasting up to 24 months. Chapter
31 benefits supplement a trainee’s wages; provide required tools,
supplies and other equipment; pay any licensing or certification fees;
and provide any classroom training essential to skill mastery. In
other instances where a chapter 31 participant is pursuing a
vocational objective that requires certification testing, such as
teaching, nursing, certified public accounting, or avionics, chapter
31 benefits pay the fees for this testing.
In this way, we provide for the entry-level worker to become
fully competitive. We
are aware that formalized on-job training programs and apprenticeships
frequently have not recognized military training. We are also aware that licensing and certification bodies
similarly have not recognized classroom instruction and skills
veterans have acquired on active duty.
This is a source of frustration and disappointment to service
members and veterans, as well as a waste of valuable assets. Task Force Participation In
line with the recommendations of the Transition Commission, we want to
do all we can to assist veterans to receive credit for their military
training. Recently, a VA
Vocational Rehabilitation task force met to assess transferable
work-skills-analysis systems. The
group found DoD’s Verification of Military Experience and Training (VMET)
to be indispensable for evaluating the work history of a newly
discharged veteran and for planning an OJT or apprenticeship program
if the veteran chooses to build on the foundation of military
training. We
strongly support service members being able to review VMET
documentation for accuracy and completeness at least 6 months before
separation. This review
and consequent records update will help vocational rehabilitation
counselors to provide the most appropriate services, to include a
transferable work-skills-analysis. The
Interagency Task Force on Certification and Licensing of Transitioning
Military Personnel published its interim report in December 1998, with
many recommendations for change. Task force members advocated a number
of legislative initiatives to the MGIB that would help remove barriers
to credentialing. The
first recommendation was to change the law to allow the use of MGIB
benefits for certification and licensing expenses. In
this regard, we note legislation is pending (section 6 of H.R. 1071)
that would change the current definition of “program of education”
for MGIB purposes to include licensing or certification tests required
under Federal, State, or local law or regulation for vocations or
professions. Further, although the Interagency Task Force has not yet
recommended a source of funding for such a change, the pending
legislation would have VA pay the licensing and test fees and, thus,
would be subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. Another
legislative change under consideration would allow active duty
personnel who had opted out of the MGIB program to change that
decision and become participants in the program.
A number of those newly eligible participants would pursue OJT
and apprenticeship training. The
third legislative change the Interagency Task Force advocated would
allow the in-service use of the MGIB for education, certification, and
licensing expenses with payment at the full benefit rates.
Currently, service members receive prorated monthly MGIB
benefits based on the cost of tuition and fees. Finally,
the Interagency Task Force wants to explore the plausibility of
lifting the 10 year eligibility period for using MGIB benefits, in
recognition of the current effort by the Federal government to promote
access to lifelong learning. Most
American workers will have seven or eight jobs in their lifetimes, and
the speed of change in the workplace is increasing.
We are constantly evaluating how best to serve the needs of
veterans, including proposals like this one. We
welcome the opportunity this Interagency Task affords us to work with
the Department of Labor and other Federal agencies to remove
unnecessary barriers to effective transitioning.
Veterans and eligible persons participating in the MGIB and
Vocational Rehabilitation will benefit from our efforts to promote
greater recognition of the value of military training and its
portability into the civilian economy. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. Mrs. Dollarhide and I will be glad to answer any questions you and the Committee may have. Back to Witness List |
