FORT HOOD, Texas — Each year about 11,000 soldiers depart the post at Fort Hood, stepping back into the civilian life and the private workforce.
Some have little trouble transitioning into jobs. Others tap their GI Bill benefits, head to college and pursue a degree.
Yet many of them stumble over the first few steps off-post. The skills they picked up in the military often don't translate well to corporate America, and many return to hometowns with few opportunities.
So Col. Matt Elledge has set a lofty goal: to help every one of Fort Hood's transitioning soldiers line up a job or a slot in school before they leave the Army. It's an impossible target, he admits, but that hasn't stopped him from trying.
Elledge, the garrison commander, has launched four new initiatives to help smooth the path between military service and the civilian workforce. Last month, he met with members of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to pitch one of those efforts — a program that will place soldiers, mostly officers, with local companies for intensive, 13-week fellowship programs.
"It's kind of like test-driving a new car," Elledge said of the Heroes Corporate Fellowship Academy. "If we can get the transitioning soldier into a company, they'll like what that soldier brings to the table."
The program asks that companies give the soldiers legitimate projects to manage — to help them absorb the requirements of the business world, but also to give them a chance to prove their mettle in a live scenario. The hope is that participating companies hire the soldiers after their fellowships.
"Quite frankly," Elledge told the Austin American-Statesman, "we just want them to allow access into their companies, because we believe our soldiers will sell themselves."
The fellowship program is one of four new career-training programs Elledge and his colleagues at Fort Hood have created — all part of the Army's broader Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program, which aims to "facilitate successful reintegration" of soldiers and their families into the civilian community.
In partnership with private companies, the programs provide job training in several careers. The courses are timed to coincide with a soldier's transition back to civilian life, and each offers a high likelihood of job placement.
The Shifting Gears program sponsored by General Motors teaches automotive skills and tries to match participants with dealerships around the country. SAP provides a software training program. Veterans in Piping teaches key pipe-fitting and welding skills.
These and similar programs have popped up at Army posts around the country, said Martin Traylor, transition services manager at Fort Hood, which has about 41,000 soldiers.
"This is kind of the direction that transition is going within the Army, because there's more of a tie directly to employment with it," Traylor said.
For now, the programs are limited, especially when compared with the volume of soldiers who cycle out of the military through Fort Hood each year. Even when up to speed, Traylor said, these four programs combined will have room for about 400 participants a year.
"When you compare what we're pushing through career skills to what's actually coming out, there's a significant (gap) there," Traylor said. "That's the reason we believe there's so much room for expansion in this career skills area."
The key to expanding these career-training programs lies outside the fences that surround Fort Hood. Without enough space or resources to expand on post, Fort Hood leaders have forged partnerships with Central Texas College in Killeen and have looked to build deeper ties with the vibrant business community in Austin.
"There's not a lack of interest," Traylor said, "quite the inverse from the private sector."
But for all the efforts by the military and the private sector, these and other job-training efforts miss thousands of soldiers. And that number is growing as the thousands of veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cycle out of the military.
"It's just a shotgun effect right now," said Mike Starich, the Austin-based president of Orion International, a recruiting and job placement firm that works with military professionals. "It's frustrating to veterans."
Soldiers with technical and management skills tend to fare best as they enter the private workforce, Starich said. But soldiers with fewer key skills might attend multiple job fairs on base and find few, good-paying options available to them.
"Salary expectations are higher than many companies are willing to pay," he said. "Sometimes military individuals see these jobs at the Wal-Marts of the world or retail jobs as lower paying and they say, 'I'm better off taking the GI Bill and going to school or taking unemployment.'"
Even for soldiers who received technical training, translating their military-based skills into the private world can prove difficult. The military and corporate America speak different languages, and many business managers don't have a clear understanding of the skills a veteran can bring to a firm.
"I think we needed to do a better job from the military's standpoint to make sure the corporate world understands what soldiers bring to the table," Elledge said. "We're getting better at telling that story."
