Final Report as Required by VOW Sec. 222, titled Pilot Study Translating Military Skills to Civilian Employment: Study on Equivalencies between Skills Developed in Military Occupational Specialties and Qualifications Required for Civilian Employment with the Private Sector

This study was required by Public Law 112-56, Title II, VOW to Hire Heroes, Sec. 222, "to identify any equivalences between the skills developed by members of the Armed Forces through various military occupational specialties (MOS), successful completion of resident training courses, attaining various military ranks or rates, or other military experiences and the qualifications required for various positions of civilian employment in the private sector." .

The starting point for the DOL study was the existing crosswalk that matches military to civilian occupations that is developed and maintained by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). Since there are nearly 1,500 military occupation classification (MOC) codes across the four main branches of the service this study was conducted as a pilot focused on a subset 68 occupations, specifically selected to cover the greatest number of active duty and separating servicemembers. The 68 MOC include the top 10 occupations in each major service branch, and collectively account for 57 percent of all enlisted servicemembers. The study included 12 combat arms positions not previously matched to any civilian occupations in the existing DMDC crosswalk.

The primary result of this study was a more granular analysis of the matches of military skills to civilian jobs. The study describes the methodology used to enhance the existing military to civilian crosswalk by looking at: 1) specific embedded skill sets; 2) related military training curricula; and 3) work experience associated with pay grade or rank, in order to identify a broader set of related civilian occupations. This analysis was based on access provided by the Department of Defense to specific military job descriptions and training curricula and communications with subject matter experts within the training commands.

The source crosswalk from DMDC mapped the 68 occupations to 100 civilian occupations, an average of 1.5 civilian occupations per MOC. The enhanced crosswalk from this study maps those same 68 MOCs to 962 civilian occupations - an average of 14 civilian occupations for each military occupation studied. The resulting crosswalk not only increased the number of matches, it further enhances the crosswalk matches by identifying several additional variables: 1) whether the MOC to civilian linkage is Direct or Skill-Related; 2) the typical minimum military pay grade that would qualify for the specific civilian occupation; and 3) an indicator of the likelihood of transitioning to a given civilian occupation after a single term of service in the military occupation (Attainability rating).

The enhanced crosswalk has been integrated in the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Employment Center www.ebenefits.va.gov/jobs and in Department of Labor electronic tools, including www.MyNextMove.org/vets and. The information is also incorporated into the curriculum of the updated Transition Assistance Program Goals, Plans, Success.