Castagnera on Risk Management in Higher Education… and more: Retraining opportunity for older vets

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Retraining opportunity for older vets

The seal of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs uses the Betsy Ross flag to represent service to all veterans from the American Revolution to the present day. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Colleagues:

Typically I send out our missives at the end of the week, but….one year ago today we started accepting applications for VRAP.

As you know, the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) offers a renewed opportunity for education/training and job assistance to unemployed Veterans 35-60 years old. As of this week there have been over 117,000 applicants. We have notified over 101,000 Veterans that they are approved to begin training (through a Certificate of Eligibility-COE) and, to date over 47,000 have begun their training towards a high demand career field.

VRAP is a joint program between VA and Department of Labor however; the successful outreach of VRAP was a much larger community endeavor. Many of you represent our stakeholders, community partners, and Veterans Service Organizations who helped us reach out to this deserving population. Thank you for helping us and supporting our outreach efforts. We could not have achieved this without you.

Our challenge now is ensuring that Veterans who have received notification of approval, a COE, start their training as soon as feasible. According to the law that established VRAP, the program expires March 31, 2014, so it’s important that training is initiated/and completed by that date.

We once again, thank you for your help in our outreach efforts, and request your continued support.

V/R

Curtis L. Coy
Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity
Veterans Benefits Administration
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
1800 G Street, NW, Suite 510 - Mail Stop 20E
Washington, DC 20420

Please Remember:

· If you would like to review prior messages sent through this listserv, click http://benefits.va.gov/vow/economic_opportunity.htm.

· If you would like to research, find, access, and, in time, manage your VA benefits and personal information please visit and/or register at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal.

· If you are seeking employment in the federal government, particularly the VA, our VA for Vets high-tech tools, resources, and professional coaching services can help. Visit online at http://vaforvets.va.gov/Pages/default.aspx or contact a coach at 1-855-824-8387.