Helping Service Members Transition Back to Civilian Life

Helping veterans overcome challenges to transitioning to civilian life—such as unemployment, homelessness, mental health issues, and disability-related issues—is essential. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and other federal agencies offer supports and services to facilitate this transition. For instance, DOD has programs to help service members transition from military service to civilian employment. One program matches military training and skills with civilian occupations and provides resources to help service members get the credentials they need. Another allows service members to meet civilian apprenticeship requirements while on active duty. Additionally, VA’s Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance program helped more than 13,000 veterans by offering a housing stipend and 12 months of tuition and fees for eligible veterans to retrain for high-demand occupations.  

However, agencies could improve some of these supports and services. 

For instance: 

• SkillBridge. DOD offers the SkillBridge program to service members who are transitioning back to civilian life. The program allows them to participate in a civilian job and job training up to 180 days before they leave military service. About 12,000 service members participated in the first half of FY 2024. The services reported that 83% were enlisted personnel. However, the services don't consistently collect or analyze data about service members' participation in the program. Doing so could help them see if the program is meeting service members' needs and identify and address any issues. 

• Warm handovers. Transitioning from military to civilian life can be difficult for some service members as they may lose access to housing, pay, healthcare, and more. DOD provides certain at-risk service members with a person-to-person connection—known as a "warm handover"—to support agencies like VA. But DOD doesn't ensure that warm handovers take place. From April 2021-March 2023, more than 4,300 at-risk service members didn't receive this assistance. Also, DOD hasn't assessed whether warm handovers are helpful.  

• Veteran employment through technology education. In 2019, VA launched a 5-year pilot program to train veterans to work in high-tech fields. However, VA does not calculate an employment rate for all participants who completed the program, as other government and industry training programs do. As a result, VA cannot compare this to other programs or fully assess how well it helps veterans get jobs. In addition, VA does not fully use the employment data it already has, collect additional outcome data, or systematically track whether veterans keep their jobs.  

• Transitioning to civilian life. Around 200,000 service members leave the military each year. Service members preparing to leave the military generally must participate in DOD’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). DOD tailors the program to meet individual service members’ needs based on how prepared they are to transition back to civilian life. However, nearly a quarter of service members who need maximum transition support did not attend a 2-day tailored class focused on topics like higher education and vocational training. Most service members also did not start the transition process at least a year in advance, as required.   

• Program goals. 45 federal programs help service members, veterans, spouses, and dependents establish civilian careers. While these programs frequently provided similar services to similar populations, they have reported efforts to coordinate activities—such as co-locating educational and career counseling services. However, 8 of these programs reported having no goals that define program achievements. Developing such performance goals and taking steps to assess outcomes could help agencies better monitor program performance.  

• Reemployment rights. Service members can risk losing their civilian jobs when they are called to serve. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 includes employment protections for these service members. A service member can file a complaint with the Department of Labor if they believe their employer has violated their rights under this act. But staff investigating these complaints need more training to help them do their jobs effectively. 

• Coast Guard’s transition program. The Coast Guard is required to provide its service members with counseling, employment assistance, and information on veterans' benefits through its Transition Assistance Program (TAP). However, the Coast Guard lacks complete and reliable data on participation in this program. Because commanders can play a key role in bolstering TAP participation, giving them a way to readily determine whether service members under their command have completed TAP could help.