Earlier this summer, we announced the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), which provides benefits to qualified unemployed Veterans looking to train for a high demand field.

As of today, more than 36,000 applications for VRAP have been approved. But for the first time, we can see what kind of fields Veterans have been interested in for retraining. From Military Times:

Computer support specialist, the skill that more than 14 percent of VRAP-approved veterans have selected, is estimated by the Labor Department to grow by 110,000 new jobs in the next decade.

[…]

Next in popularity for VRAP students are substance abuse counseling and general and operations managing, each chosen by about 6 percent of those approved, according to the Veterans Affairs Department.

Those jobs are two on the list of more than 200 classified as high demand, so if you’re unemployed and meet the qualifications, take a look to see if any sound good to you.

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6 Comments

  1. Thomas Collingwood September 3, 2012 at 15:22

    My best advice to anyone considering further education is go to state rather than a private money making machine. My experience is typical.

    I was attending Anchorage Community College, for free. The ads on TV were very seductive. Charter College Electronic Engineering fast track two year program. I see I don’t have enough characters to go into detail. $50,000 I paid, for to get a minimum wage $3.65hr job at Radio Shack. I have never been able to use my education and sit in poverty.

  2. Brian Kurtz September 1, 2012 at 19:49

    This program for me has been nothing short of a goat rope for me. The rules for this program are changing every other day. One minute my campus (ECPI/Innsbrook) is approved for VRAP (On 22 August) then the 28th, it’s not. When I called the VA, an employee their told me that their bosses we’re coming into their cubicles on a daily basis changing the rules sent down from the VA in Buffalo. Now the new rule is, if your campus offers anything higher than an Associates, it’s not VRAP approved. What the heck does it matter if my campus offers both AS and BS programs, as long as I am enrolled in an Associates Program that supports a profession in high need by the Department of Labor and there is a VA Certifying Official there, that’s all that should be required! I’m on my second term at ECPI (Started 23 July) and I still haven’t been awarded any VRAP benefits yet because of this fly by the seat of your pants going on with campus approvals. I’ve already taken out SallieMae loans based on the first campus approval of 22 August. But when I got a disapproval letter dated 28 August on Friday 31 August, just in time to ruin my Labor Day weekend, I almost threw up!!!! This is why I have now chosen to get my congressman involved, one of which has alreadt told me that this is not how veterans should be getting treated and that he was actively ready to get the ball rolling on my case. It shouldn’t have come down to this.

  3. Kathy Karlsen September 1, 2012 at 01:50

    Joe – Please do what Alex suggested. With the Obama VA plan you have a better chance at getting immediate assistance. We never know how any election will turn out. I just know that this VA plan is available now. Kathy

  4. Robert August 31, 2012 at 02:43

    Where was this when I was unemployed for 8 months last year

  5. Joseph Forsythe August 30, 2012 at 19:46

    As far as the VRAP is concerned, I am an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs and a veteran with disabilities, I have literally been forced out of my job by engineering management and my first and second line supervisors and then told that the agency has no place to put me as an employee, I am technically still employed but unable to return to work, per my doctors orders. At the end of the month of September 2012, I will have exhausted all of my sick and annual leave and then be without a source of income.

    Am I eligible for VRAP, since my employer has eliminated my job, and has admitted several times that the Gainesville agency has no place or position in which to place me, that is commensurate with my original hiring skills?

    Please contact me @ masterelectrician52@Gmail.com

    • Alex Horton August 31, 2012 at 11:52

      Joseph, it’s best to apply for the program and see if you are accepted. Many folks have written to say their application was decided on pretty quick.

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