Air Force Community, Air Force Spouse and Family Resources - Air Force Times

Job programs for spouses keep growing

Whether a base will be growing or shrinking during the ongoing closure and realignment process, military spouses should be part of states’ discussion about the job impact, Department of Labor officials said.

Labor’s Employment and Training Administration is ensuring that states understand there are resources they can use to reach out to military spouses and support their transition, both in growing and closing communities, according to Labor Department spokeswoman Peggy Abrahamson.

A new electronic tool that combines several sites, to be sponsored jointly by the Defense and Labor departments, , will be available soon for general outreach purposes, Abrahamson said.

Labor Department officials have been working with defense officials for several years to increase career opportunities for military spouses as they move from base to base. The first effort was Milspouse.org, a single Web portal to help spouses with employment and relocation resources, which has grown to provide nearly 3,000 links to employment, education, training, and relocation resources.

Encouraging national companies to hire military spouses is an ongoing effort in both the Defense Department and Labor Department. In February, the two hosted a “webinar” with more than 20 national employers highlighting the efforts of Adecco and RE/MAX international companies to hire, train and retain military spouses.

Adecco has a program allowing military spouses to obtain opportunities for employment at the company’s locations around the county. Operation RE/MAX is building partnerships with military bases to help develop career opportunities for those with a connection with the military.

In January, Labor department officials brought together leaders in the hospitality, financial services and health care industries to discuss pathways to careers for military spouses in high-skilled, high-wage industries.

Portable careers for military spouses are a key focus of these efforts as officials look at a variety of areas. Labor and defense officials are working with the medical transcription industry, for example, to develop an apprenticeship for military spouses.

And officials are working on addressing issues of cross-state licensing and certification that sometimes cause problems for mobile military spouses.

A number of other efforts are under way to connect military spouses with jobs, such as the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network, at http://www.msccn.org. The network’s mission is to provide spouses with career opportunities and job portability.

Spouses post their resumes for free, and companies who are interested in hiring post jobs. Spouses can search for job openings in several ways. Besides searching the entire database, for example, spouses can look for jobs available at Boeing.

At the moment, the Web site has a special section geared toward spouses who may be moving to Fort Riley, Kan., offering information about employment, training, child care and transportation in the area.