DOD SKILLBRIDGE PROGRAM

The DoD Skillbridge program is for active duty military members who are moving towards seperation. This program allows service members up to 180 days prior to their EAOS to participate in a variety of training such as Apprenticeships, Internships, and On-The-Job-Training. This experience is invaluable for servicemembers who are not only transitioning to the civilian workforce to become accustomed to the lifestyle change, but also for servicemembers who are going into a field that is different than their job assignment in the military

DoD Skillbridge instruction ‘DoDi 1322.29’

Visit the DoD Skillbridge website below for more information.

VET-TEC PROGRAM

The VA’s ‘Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses’ is a relatively new program that is offered to veterans of the US military. The only requirement is that you have at least one day of your GI Bill remaining. This benefit dog not reach into your GI Bill even though it uses it for eligibility. This program is only offered to veterans and reservists who are not on active duty orders. Candidates attend a participating institution that enrolls them into a series of classes that are designed to teach skills and knowledge about technology and computers at various levels of interest and experience. Participants receive a Monthly Housing Allowance that is separate from that offered by the GI Bill and participants can utilize both programs simultaneously (and receive 2 separate MHA allowances). The program is designed to get educated and employed into the computer technology field upon graduation.

Please visit the link below to learn more and find a participating institution near you.

MICROSOFT SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS ACADEMY

MSSA is another great option for servicemembers who are leaving the military to join the workforce. This 18 week (or 2 9-week) course focuses on training veterans with the skills required to be competitive in areas such as cloud development, cloud administration, cybersecurity administration, or database and business intelligence administration. The academy teaches servicemembers about other critical skills such as resume writing, and interview process.

Learn more about MSSA in the link below:

ONWARD TO OPPORTUNITY

Onward to Opportunity is another amazing and FREE career training opportunity offered by Syracuse that provides professional certification and employee support services to transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses. O2O partners with industry leading companies in order to ensure veterans are prepared for a successful career in technology and make them highly employable in the field. There are a wide variety of resources such as entrepreneurship insight, career training, and other community services that are geared in place for veteran and family success.

O’REILLY ONLINE LEARNING

O’Reilly Online Learning is an ABSOLUTE must have resource for every veteran. Not only is this resource extremely useful, but it will save you so much money. Through the MWR Library (which uses a DSLogin) you are able to have access to literally thousands of tech books. Such books include the All-In-One exam guide (For exams like CompTIA’s A+, Network+, Security+ as well as (ISC)2 SSCP and CISSP) as well as other books by famous authors such as Kevin Mitnick, John Erickson, Adam Segal. I seriously cannot stress enough how important this resource is. Some of these books cost upwards of $50 alone. Also another neat interesting this is some of the books include access codes to online resources and the codes that I have verified so far actually work (ANOTHER BONUS). Safari books can be accessed in a web browser or on your mobile device through the App. Please do not waste your money on tech books without first looking on Safari Books. In addition to online books, Safari Learning also offers full video training for a variety of topics.

Please follow the link below to access the MWR Library and then select the link for Safari Books:

FEDERAL VIRTUAL TRAINING ENVIRONMENT

FedVTE has grown a lot since it was originally launched. FedVTE provides free online cybersecurity training to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government employees, federal contractors, and US military veterans. This is a good training resource in that the training is delivered in a lecture format typically with a class audience. There are a good amount of courses available. Some are designed to prepare you to take certain exams offered by providers such as CompTIA, EC-Council and (ISC)2. The rest of the courses are designed to simply enhance the knowledge of the student in various areas of information technology. These courses range from beginner to expert and are labeled as such on the website to facilitate a better understanding of the level required for each course.

Register for access to FedVTE by clicking on the link below and clicking REGISTER:

SANS VET SUCCESS ACADEMY

SANS Institute is one of THE leading organizations when it comes to cyber security training. SANS courses are highly sought after and revered and can be quite pricey. Sans is offering veterans and service members separating from the military the opportunity to take up to 3 of its courses. There are a few eligibility requirements needed to enroll as well as a skills based assessment test in order to determine baseline proficiency since the course material offered is NOT for beginners. If you are new to IT and this is something you want to do I would HIGHLY suggest reading up on the requirements and achieving them since there is a time limit upon exiting service for when eligibility occurs.

Check out the SANS Vet Success Academy by clicking on the link below:

AMAZON WEB SERVICES – EDUCATE

Amazon is a major provider of cloud computing technology offering on-demand cloud computing platforms and API’s to individuals, companies and governments. Amazon is the single largest cloud provider owning 35% of the market. Learning and understanding Amazons AWS platform is a skill of its own and has certifications in order to boast proficiency. AWS Educate provides U.S. Veterans access to credits, training, and the option to choose their desired cloud career. AWS Educate delivers a personalized path that includes content, knowledge checks, and badging that guides them through the learning process. AWS Educate is available to veterans, transitioning military personnel, and their spouses residing in the United States.

Follow the link below to sign up today for you AWS Educate account:

LINKEDIN LEARNING

When you think about LinkedIn, you might think of a professional social media platform and while this may be true, LinkedIn is SO much more than that. Active Duty military and veterans are able to get a year of LinkedIn Premium for FREE (which can cost almost $300 annually) although I would advise saving it until you fully transition out. LinkedIn Premium is full of a lot of useful tools that give you an edge over others when it comes to marketing yourself on their platform. But LinkedIn Premium is more than just that, you see with Premium you are also granted access to LinkedIn Learning which is a powerful platform for web based video training. On LinkedIn Learning, you can expect to see training videos for a variety of subjects as well as exams (CompTIA, EC-Council and ISC2) taught by some of the industries leaders such as Mike Chapel and Mike Myers. This resource is totally worth it. Also, after your year expires, you can go ahead an try LinkedIn Premium again for another month before you may decide on buying.

Click on the link below to register your LinkedIn account with ID.me for a year of Premium Access:

VETS IN TECH

VetsinTech holds free classes in cybersecurity – specifically relating to veterans and emerging cybersecurity challenges. Visit the link below to see a schedule of classes that are offered.

MILITARY – CREDENTIALING OPPORTUNITIES ONLINE

COOL is the US military program for managing credentials of US military members and transferring skills from the military into civilian equivalent. DoD 8570 uses civilian IT certifications in order to satisfy requirements for the IA workforce and this funding is provided to service members FREE of charge, regardless if you pass or fail. This is especially important since this program was traditionally restricted to military assignment but now can be used to training and classes attended outside of the military.