How This Company is Combatting Unemployment Among Millennial Vets

Young people have long been struggling with soaring unemployment rates. But veteran millennials between the ages of 18 and 24 are grappling with a 21.4 percent unemployment rate, according to the Bureau Labor of Statistics. That’s because the skills that vets acquire in the military are difficult to transition to some of the high-tech jobs available in the United States.
Sharp Decisions, a business and technology consulting firm, is focusing on changing that statistic in New York City, one of the top 10 American cities with regards to veteran unemployment rates.
Through its Vocation, Education and Training for Service members (V.E.T.S.) Program, Sharp Decisions hire former service members as full-time employees and then trains and deploys them to clients in teams including other vets. The company puts each vet through an intensive training boot camp before outsourcing them to companies such as EmblemHealth, Experian and Freddie Mac.  The program, entirely funded by Sharp Decisions, never uses the GI Bill or asks for government assistance.
Karen Ross, CEO of Sharp Decisions, founded the program not only because it was morally right, but also because it was a smart business decision. With expertise military training, vets are often efficient at completing a task. Under the pilot V.E.T.S. program, teams often completed projects in only two weeks, compared to the three months it would take an average civilian consultant, according to the company. In situations such as this, vets remain on Sharp Decision’s payroll when finishing a project early.
More recently, Sharp Decisions was one of three companies honored by the Rockefeller Foundation for innovations in hiring companies across the country.

“These three small businesses have developed business models that leverage the unique advantages that youth bring to a business. In doing so, they have achieved positive financial returns that make their strategies attractive for other businesses to replicate. As a result, they have benefitted their communities by creating sustainable social change,” according to the Foundation.

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This Professor Proved That Everyone Deserves a Fair Shot at a Good Job. Then He Made It Happen

When  Columbia University’s Arthur Langer studied 47 low-income young adults to understand why they struggled to find career opportunities, he found that it wasn’t because they lacked talent. What they needed was a way to develop professional skills. The four year study suggested that anyone would succeed if given a fair opportunity.
So instead of stopping there, Langer took it upon himself to provide that opportunity: He founded Workforce Opportunity Services in 2005 to provide disadvantaged young adults and veterans with educational opportunities that lead immediately to long-term careers. WOS has flipped the traditional job-placement model. First, it finds employers who have or create job openings, then it finds disadvantaged youth and veterans to fill those jobs. The students then undergo a rigorous training program where they attend night classes on social skills, read The New York Times and read books on office politics. They also write weekly journal entries and take classes on interpersonal communications. Their weekly assignments can ask questions like “Describe your level of self-esteem.” In Langer’s mission statement, he said the program is designed not only to create good workers — it also wants to create better people and citizens. When the training ends, the employees are guaranteed a well-paid job in information technology. WOS has gained a large and well-recognized client base that includes Prudential Financial, Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard.
Students have to apply for their positions, but once they’re in everything is covered. Though the students have to work very hard once accepted to a program, the long-term job security and free tech training is definitely worth it. “Our approach is simple: skills first. We want to teach our students valuable skills and launch them into careers,” Langer said on WOS’ website. “They work on their degrees part time and graduate from college, debt free.”
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