Robyn Cameron, a Recruitment Specialist with Southeast Lineman Training Center, speaks with U.S. Marines during a SkillBridge expo at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in February 2023. (Antonino Mazzamuto/U.S. Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is overhauling a job training program for transitioning service members with tougher requirements for employers, the creation of a centralized tracking system to measure outcomes and a greater focus on moving participants into full-time work after an internship.
The new mandates were implemented in August and require companies that participate in a program called SkillBridge to demonstrate a “high probability” of immediate employment after the six-month program, according to the department.
While the Defense Department maintains the changes are needed to help more participants connect with jobs, some veterans and companies have questioned whether the goal is to scale back participation in a popular jobs program to ensure troop readiness.
The Defense Department has not provided data on performance rates or outcomes for SkillBridge to validate the changes. But the program was paused in the summer of 2023 over concerns about balancing troop readiness with demand for the jobs program by service members in their final months of duty.
SkillBridge is a voluntary program for troops leaving the service that has proven to be more popular than the military anticipated, the department said. More than 12,000 exiting service members enrolled in SkillBridge during the first two quarters of fiscal 2024, according to the Government Accountability Office, which examined program participation in a report published in August.
Under SkillBridge, companies provide unpaid internships to service members who are in their final six months of active duty, while the Defense Department continues to pay their wages and full benefits.
William O’Neil, a Marine Corps veteran and founder of Greater Heights Capital, predicted business participation likely will scale back under the new priorities to hire job trainees.
“SkillBridge is an amazing opportunity for businesses. It is hard to turn down free labor. But it also will be hard for business owners to forecast future hirings and be certain it is feasible, ” said O’Neil, a former staff sergeant who served from 2008-2022.
Greater Heights Capital, a company that invests in small businesses, has not participated in SkillBridge, but O’Neil assisted another company that was applying to participate in SkillBridge.
Under the new rules, companies will have to guarantee they can offer a specified number of internships annually based on the organization’s size. They also will need to show 75% or more of service members who successfully complete a SkillBridge internship receive immediate offers of employment.
When service members are six months from separation, they can request to participate in SkillBridge. The training is considered official duty during regular working hours.
Bridgestone, a multinational manufacturing company, piloted two internships in 2023 at stores near Fort Campbell, Ky. The company hired one intern as an auto mechanic after the six-month program. Bridgestone said Thursday that it plans to continue offering the program under the new requirements.
Since SkillBridge started in 2011, more than 50,000 service members have participated. SkillBridge was created as a response to job loss from the national recession in 2008 and 2009.
A new process for collecting and analyzing SkillBridge data on internship participation, performance and outcomes is scheduled to begin in fiscal 2025, according to the Defense Department.
The DOD stated it will “issue new guidance and track data by military service,” according to the GAO report, which looked at the need for improving data analysis for program oversight.
The Defense Department could not provide figures on how many SkillBridge participants completed their programs or were hired by their employers, according to the GAO report. It also described current data collection methods on SkillBridge as ad-hoc.
Each service branch is responsible for data collection, according to the GAO, which found centralized analysis does not exist.
Auditors concluded the Defense Department lacks the evidence to determine whether the 13-year-old job training program meets the needs of exiting service members seeking new careers as civilians.
“Moreover, this absence of data, analysis and corrective action plans could make it difficult for key decision makers to provide oversight of the program,” auditors wrote.
New requirements for SkillBridge bring the program into alignment with the Defense Department’s two other major programs for separating service members, according to the GAO report. They are the Transition Assistance Program, called TAP, a mandated course for all exiting military members, and the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program that supports transitioning members of the National Guard and Reserve.
The DOD’s Military-Civilian Transition Office assumed oversight of SkillBridge in 2023 and assessed the program’s strengths and challenges through interviews with stakeholders.
“[The transition office] is taking steps to identify if SkillBridge program opportunities are resulting in interviews and job offers for services members in the program, a key piece of data,” the GAO report said. “More fully leveraging available information would better position the military services to identify shortcomings with SkillBridge or challenges facing service members participating in the program and why those challenges occur.”
