President Obama’s priority at the Joint VA/White House roundtable meeting was to ensure that America’s veterans find meaningful civilian employment. To help achieve this, both parties took a serious look at Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs).
ALPs are non-traditional forms of education, such as bootcamps, accelerated certificate programs, online courses, and apprenticeships. These typically offer a quicker way into a career than traditional educational programs like technical schools, colleges, and universities.
This is well suited for veterans, because many veterans cannot afford to spend four years in college while making very little, especially if they have families.
“We must do all that we can to make sure our Veterans who were ready for war are also ready for life outside the military,” Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson told roundtable participants “We talk a lot about how hiring Veterans is the right thing to do. The fact is hiring Veterans is the smart thing to do, and we must do all that we can to support them.”
Evaluations will begin on these non-traditional ALPs, which involve things like establishing a baseline of a veterans current skillset, his or her current employment status, and the jobs he or she qualifies for before taking part in ALPs.
The VA and White House said that their first focus will be on the Information Technology sector.
