Federal programs used to help service members transition into civilian life are too focused on education and are not spending enough money and time working toward finding them employment — and some seemingly aren’t effective at all, according to a new study.
The new report published this week by Rand Corp., a federally funded think tank focused on military issues, takes a deep dive into how the roughly $13 billion spent annually on helping service members transition out of the ranks is used and whether it’s effective. It found redundancies and issues — namely, that the programs focus too much on higher education.
“Overall, we find that very few programs focus on military-to-civilian employment transitions. Specifically, little support is dedicated to helping service members and veterans translate their military skills to the civilian labor market,” the report details. “In fact, nearly all the money for career assistance programs, as defined by [the Government Accountability Office], is spent on upskilling, retraining or education programs.”
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This revelation also comes at a time when undergraduate college enrollment has become less popular and has declined notably in the last 10 years or so, by about 15% between 2010 and 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Dedicating significant portions…
