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Panel: Is vets transition program working?

Two decades after the creation of a transition assistance program for separating service members, the House Armed Services Committee is demanding answers about whether taking the classes really helps veterans find post-service jobs.

That question has hung over the program since its inception in 1990 at the start of the post-Cold War drawdown, when it was launched to try to lessen the blow of a military career cut short by teaching basic job-hunting skills to separating or retiring troops.

The program has seen changes over the years. The Veterans Affairs and Labor departments have joined the services in overseeing the training, often with the aid of contractors, that includes help with writing résumés and preparing for job interviews, information on post-service benefits, and briefings about government programs to help smooth the transition from military to civilian life.

But the success of the program has been measured mostly by the number of people who take the classes — about 65 percent of those getting out — and by surveys done at the end of the classes or shortly after discharge.

That’s not enough for the House Armed Services Committee, whose members worry about national employment numbers that show people who have separated from the military since the 2001 terrorist attacks have a higher unemployment rate than nonveterans.

The House version of the 2011 defense authorization bill, HR 5136, includes a demand for the Pentagon to take a close look at transition assistance, and in particular to analyze post-service employment rates for veterans compared with employment in the private sector.

In April, the Labor Department reported a 13.1 percent jobless rate for new veterans, compared with a 9.1 percent national rate.

The report, due nine months after the defense bill becomes law, also asks military officials to consider how the assistance could be modified to better help veterans in the long term, not just in their immediate transition out of the service.

To do this, the committee asks defense officials to look at current employment challenges and try to predict how veterans will fit into the civilian job market — and then recommend what changes might be needed to help them find work.

Eric Hilleman of Veterans of Foreign Wars told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on May 19 that transition assistance programs could use an overhaul.

“While TAP has been successful at providing a wealth of information in a short time frame to separating service members, it is often seen as more of a ‘checked-box’ for separating troops,” Hilleman said.