Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. -- Spouses of service members are often faced with unique challenges like raising children while their partner is deployed and frequent relocation each time the next permanent change of station come around. Focus is placed on the service member’s career, leaving the spouse’s employment aspirations to be placed on the back burner. Programs like Hiring Our Heroes not only work toward finding meaningful employment for veterans, but for spouses as well.
The Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Employment Program aims to help military spouses overcome unemployment and underemployment. The Hiring Our Heroes Spouses job fair is visiting the Combat Center May 9 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will take place at the Combat Center’s Officer’s Club and is open exclusively to military spouses.
“The Commandant of the Marine Corps and Mrs. Amos are actively involved with the Hiring our Heroes efforts, supported by the National Chamber of Commerce, receiving full backing from the White House and Mrs. Obama's Joining Forces initiative,” said Jessica Arthur, Marine Air Ground Task Force family readiness officer.
The program assists spouses in becoming more competitive in the workplace through networking events, online and in-person mentoring, and hiring fairs that are exclusively designed for military spouses.
The program promotes the following six core areas of support for military spouses:
Nationwide Network - building a national network of spouse-friendly employers, public partners, and service organizations that will enhance the job prospects of all military spouses.
Resume Refining - giving spouses the tools and training they need for a successful job search including how to best highlight their unique strengths on their resumes.
Certification & Licensing - connecting spouses to the resources they need to obtain and maintain the proper certifications and licenses for their careers, regardless of where their spouses serve.
Entrepreneurship - ensuring that spouses have all of the information and preparation needed to start a successful business of their own.
Portable Careers - working with its advisory council and partners to advocate for quality remote, flex, and temporary work options for all working spouses, so their careers can move with them.
Government and Contracting - preparing spouses for government and contractor positions, especially with agencies and companies that have made a commitment to hire and retain military spouses.
The Hiring Our Heroes program is a part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and was launched in March 2011 as a nation wide initiative to help veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment.The program works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vast network of state and local chambers and other strategic partners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. This helps to create a movement in communities where veterans and military families frequently return.
Hiring Our Heroes has hosted more than 430 hiring fairs across the country. By Dec. 31, 2012, more than 18,400 veterans and military spouses were assisted in finding employment as a result of these job fairs.
According to Hiring Our Heroes, as the program enters its third year, they are developing online programs to complement the hiring fairs in order to better address the systemic employment issues facing veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses. These include online tools to help translate military service into a strong resume and a job portal that allows veterans and transitioning service members to search for employment opportunities in the fastest growing job markets and industries. These online tools will be integrated into the employment workshops that will take place at every fair to enhance the Hiring Our Heroes experience.
They further note, the lifestyle of a military spouse instills a unique set of skills including resilience, adaptability and unparalleled dedication. Every employer, whether they are a small business or a Fortune 500 company, can benefit from these traits and Hiring Our Heroes is working toward bridging the gap between these talented military spouses and the business community.
For more information about Hiring Our Heroes and the Military Spouse Program, visit www.uschamber.com /hiringourheroes/milspouse.