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Congressional witnesses highlight SkillBridge, navigators and employer partnerships as route to faster postservice employment
Summary
Witnesses from the Department of Labor, Hiring Our Heroes and employers told a House subcommittee that experiential programs such as SkillBridge and the Employment Navigator and Partnership Program shorten time to employment and raise starting wages for transitioning service members.
Witnesses to the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee described several workforce programs they said improve employment outcomes for transitioning service members and urged Congress and DOD to remove barriers to broader employer participation.
Margarita Devlin, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service, described the Employment Navigator and Partnership Program (EMPP), which provides one-on-one career guidance at 40 military installations. Devlin said preliminary outcome data show enlisted service members who worked with an Employment Navigator found civilian employment about two months sooner and earned roughly 11 percent more than counterparts who did not use a navigator.
Elizabeth O'Brien of Hiring Our Heroes and other witnesses highlighted DOD's SkillBridge fellowship program as a high‑impact, employer‑driven pathway. O'Brien said Hiring Our Heroes connected roughly 10,600 SkillBridge fellows with 2,500 employers over five years, reporting an 89 percent job-offer rate within three months and that 63 percent of SkillBridge fellows were employed within one month of transition in a recent survey.
Employer witnesses said businesses use internships, apprenticeships and boot camps to translate military skills to civilian jobs. Brian Lewis of Consumers Energy described company-run boot camps and seven registered apprenticeship job roles the company and partners have opened, noting demand outpaces available slots. Candy Tillman of 50 Strong urged continued use of third‑party intermediaries and recommended delaying a DOD MOU requirement that would force individual MOUs for host employers until an outcomes reporting requirement for intermediaries is fully implemented.
Witnesses urged expanding SkillBridge access, making EMPP more widely available, and improving the local handoffs from TAP offices to employers, apprenticeship programs and American Job Centers. Several witnesses said employer involvement is key to providing meaningful career outcomes for most transitioning service members, and small businesses require flexible participation models.
Committee members asked for concrete fixes to expand employer participation and to measure outcomes rather than outputs; witnesses recommended mandatory outcomes reporting for third‑party intermediaries, broader access to navigators and closer coordination between TAP and SkillBridge.
