Many people featured in Spotlight aspired to be something quite different from the professionals they are now. Not the case with Keith Brandon and Bobby Johns, Local Veteran Employment Representatives in Clay County, FL. They are civilian employees of WorkSource, operated by First Coast Workforce Development, Inc. WorkSource provides a trained workforce to the 16,200 employers in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns Counties around Jacksonville, FL. Keith and Bobby are retired military career men, and both "are always on the job," helping veterans transition to the civilian workplace, explains Keith, they long have been linked to the military life.
Today, they and 15 other Veterans Representatives with WorkSource help veterans transition to civilian life successfully. They reach out to retiring servicepersons in their geography, two years out. They contact every non-retiring serviceperson who is separating, one year out, encouraging all to avail themselves of WorkSource's programs. "We use O*NET countless ways in our work," Keith reports. "The first day in our TAP (Transitioning Assistance Program) classes, we introduce our vets to O*NET. We show them how to use O*NET for resumé writing, interviewing, negotiating salary. But that's just the beginning." They help 2,400 vets a year in 48 three-day TAP classes. "We do the TAP classes only 12 days a month. Other days we talk a lot with businesses, encouraging them to seek veterans as workers. And in working with the vets, we're getting them to use the language of O*NET to talk about their work experience. When everyone in an interview uses that common language, they all can realize that they are talking about the same things and that the veteran has required knowledge sets, skills, abilities, and experience."
Bobby continues, "So many vets think they don't have skills that transfer to the civilian work world. We emphasize that this simply is not true. Using the O*NET Code Connector we go from their military occupational codes, and they see the equivalent civilian occupations—they can quickly see that the skills they have are truly transferable to many non-military occupations. Looking at the skills, the tasks—they see that so many are the same. And when you go down toward the bottom of each occupation's O*NET summary report, you see Related Occupations—very important, because now the veterans see that there is more than simply an equivalent of their jobs. There are other occupations, fairly close in terms of required skills and tasks. Plus, you see Labor Market Information, salaries, trends."
Bobby, Keith, and their colleagues are tireless in their outreach to veterans. "Bureau of Labor statistics say that 25% of homeless folks are veterans," Keith points out. "So we go to the homeless shelters to find our vets. We have programs in prisons to connect with incarcerated veterans, and likewise, chemically dependent vets."
These guys don't even have a recreational life separate from their vet world. "Nope," agrees Keith. "I guess in our fun times, we're still in our veterans jobs. Bobby's big with his VFW hall. I'm into welcome back parties for the guys and gals returning to the States. You could say that we always are advocates for our counterparts, all 17 of us. We enjoy knowing each other's spouses and kids. This is what we do for fun."
"We are dedicated to both sides of the employment equation. We are all about breaking down the barriers. For example, employers might think that a military police officer has skills needed only by the military. Not true. The skills those people have are the requirements for being a civilian police officer or for working in civilian security. We break down so many barriers--disabilities, financial barriers, transportation barriers, family barriers. Our job is to make the veteran more marketable to the business. O*NET figures in, in so many ways, to breaking down barriers and boosting marketability," Keith summarizes.
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