Changes Are Coming to SkillBridge Job Training. Could They Limit Opportunities for Veterans?

Pentagon officials are making changes to the popular SkillBridge job training program, hoping to help more veterans get permanent jobs and improve their educational experience.

The program’s first updates in five years aim to connect active-duty soldiers with safe, stable jobs that offer a clear path to employment after military service ends. But there are still concerns that the new rules could limit the number of companies that choose to participate in SkillBridge, as well as the number of soldiers who rely on the program as a landing pad after military service ends.

Without the financial stability and professional development that SkillBridge can offer, soldiers may have an even more difficult time transitioning into civilian life.

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“SkillBridge is a great program. We are much better with it … than we would be without it,” Ian Eishen, who retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant in 2022, told Military.com on Wednesday. “I think some of these policies could have second- and third-order effects that you might or might not have thought about.”

SkillBridge, founded in 2011, offers soldiers the chance to spend the last six months of their military service on unpaid job training, internships and placements with civilian employers ranging from Amazon to federal agencies. The program lets soldiers try out new skills and learn whether the workplace culture is a good fit for them, with the goal of finding full-time employment after training.

More than 4,700 employers have signed up to be SkillBridge providers this month, Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Grace Geiger told Military.com on Aug. 23.

It’s unclear how many soldiers have participated in the SkillBridge program since it began, or how many of them were ultimately hired by employers. While the Defense Department said in 2022 that more than 50,000 service members had used the program, Geiger said the Pentagon can no longer verify those numbers because of poor data collection practices.

The Pentagon hopes to have a clearer picture of SkillBridge enrollment and employment data in fiscal year 2026, Geiger added. About 200,000 troops leave active duty each year.

The updates follow a decision by the Defense Department to transfer oversight of the SkillBridge program to the Pentagon chief of staff in May 2023 to integrate more closely with other civilian transition and reintegration programs, Geiger said. That change prompted multiple reviews to determine whether the initiative was successful, culminating in an August memo outlining the changes.

Geiger said the updates will make it easier for the Pentagon to verify that SkillBridge is working as expected and to report to Congress, the White House and other stakeholders.

The changes come after the Navy and Marine Corps limited the number of soldiers who can use SkillBridge and how long they can use it, citing the need to prioritize force readiness.

“Commanders and service members will have improved training, information, resources and support to ensure SkillBridge delivers successful transition outcomes while reinforcing our commitment to enabling commanders to balance SkillBridge capabilities with operational readiness requirements,” Geiger said.

Among the most significant updates are regulations that dictate how many SkillBridge employees the company must hire based on its size, as well as having the same number of open jobs as SkillBridge employees have. The Defense Department wants at least three-quarters of soldiers who successfully complete the program to receive a job offer immediately upon leaving the military, according to the memo.

The move could help employers prevent soldiers from being used as cheap labour with no intention of hiring them full-time.

However, Eishen believes the provision could disqualify companies that cannot guarantee permanent employment but still offer the necessary work experience.

Eishen runs the “AF Quarantine University” Facebook page, a community that started early in the COVID-19 pandemic to connect Airmen with career opportunities when the virus disrupted their career plans. The page has grown to more than 28,000 members and continues to flag job opportunities, conferences and programs like SkillBridge.

Hiring is important, Eishen says, but giving someone a chance to see if a particular industry suits them and if a particular company will be a good fit for them is just as important.

“I think they judge a company’s maturity based on the number of employees, and I don’t think those two things always go hand in hand,” he said.

He added that the regulations could eliminate startups that are unsure how quickly they will be able to grow.

“Especially if they’re selling to the Department of Defense, they don’t want to do something wrong … and they don’t want a veteran to have a bad experience,” he said.

The memo also tries to ensure that soldiers are joining stable companies by requiring that SkillBridge providers have been in business for at least three years. That benchmark does not apply to federal, state and local government employers.

That could disqualify startups that could otherwise be key testing grounds for soldiers looking to become the Swiss Army knife of a small workforce or enter the market from scratch, Eishen said.

“Your role is to help the startup succeed and change day to day, which I think for a veteran who didn’t have the opportunity to try different types of jobs in their 20s and find what they really like, it allows you to get a lot of experience in a lot of areas of the business and then hopefully settle into something as the company grows,” he said.

He added that companies can also benefit from veterans’ opinions, especially those bidding for military contracts.

“This rule will limit a huge number of great companies from hiring some of these people, and those people will no longer be able to train at those companies,” Eishen said.

The program will also require companies to offer no more than 50% of training in the form of asynchronous courses, such as online videos that an employee can watch on their own time. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that asynchronous-only training is less effective and valuable than in-person or live online work, Geiger said.

Eishen worries that some will misinterpret the guidelines and stop offering remote work positions, which are still allowed and could provide much-needed flexibility for workers outside the region or those with family obligations.

“I don’t know how (DoD) is going to audit this type of thing, but there are companies that will say the work they’re doing is substandard,” he said. “They can pick and choose and say we can’t host a SkillBridge fellow.”

Other updates are aimed at reducing the financial burden of participating in SkillBridge. Companies can’t charge a service member for training until their commander approves their participation, nor can they charge soldiers for training materials, equipment, uniforms and other costs of learning a trade. Some program costs can be covered by a service member’s GI Bill benefits, Geiger said.

Businesses participating in the SkillBridge programme must also ensure that the workplace is safe and complies with labour and safety laws and regulations.

From giving soldiers a chance to prove they are more than just their military resumes to offering a less intimidating transition into civilian life, SkillBridge is a key tool in the Pentagon’s efforts to support veterans, Eishen said. He hopes DoD officials will revise the new rules to strengthen the program without artificially limiting who can participate.

As Eishen argued, SkillBridge could reduce the employee turnover that many veterans experience shortly after leaving the service by offering a trial period in a specific job or in an unfamiliar industry.

Nearly half of all veterans leave their first post-military job within a year, and up to 80% of veterans leave within two years, according to a 2014 study by the career counseling service VetAdvisor and the Institute of Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

“I would say there’s a huge benefit,” Eishen said of joining SkillBridge. “I have to believe there’s a decrease in suicidal thoughts, a decrease in hopelessness, because you have more veterans who have enough money to support their families and feel more confident.”

Related: Marine Corps cuts SkillBridge transition program, citing decline in ‘unit readiness’

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