VA and Department of Labor releases high demand occupation list for the Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is preparing to launch the Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program (VRRAP) as part of its continued effort to support Veterans seeking retraining and economic opportunities in response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
VA in partnership with the Department of Labor published a list of high-demand occupations. The list is available here and includes healthcare, education, media, engineering, and high tech opportunities.
The new program, part of the American Rescue Plan, will allow qualifying Veterans between the ages of 22 and 67 to receive up to 12 months of tuition and fee and monthly housing allowance payments, based on Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. VA will provide further information soon on how Veterans can apply for this program.
The week of April 4th, VA will release a participation agreement and begin to work with educational institutions interested in participating in VRRAP. VA will require educational institutions to commit to a participation agreement that will outline VRRAP requirements and specify which training programs are covered under VRRAP. Once reviewed and approved by VA, a comprehensive list of VRRAP educational institutions and programs will be published and made available.
For a program of education to qualify for VRRAP, it must meet the following criteria:
- Be approved for GI Bill or VET TEC
- Not lead to a bachelors or graduate degree
- Provide training for a high-demand occupation
The payment model for VRRAP tuition and fees (paid directly to the VRRAP education institution) is milestone based:
- 50% when the Veteran begins the program
- 25% when the Veteran completes the program
- 25% when the Veteran finds employment in the field of study
The program is limited to a maximum of 17,250 participants and up to $386 million.
If you are aware of any GI Bill Beneficiaries who require assistance, please have them contact the Education Call Center at 888-442-4551 between 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Central Time, Monday-Friday to speak with a representative.
To learn more about the program and for updates, go to our website, or visit our Facebook page.
Contracted LINK Coordinator Position Available! Reply by February 2.
Contractual position available for energetic, organized, highly efficient self-starter to provide coordination of the Pennsylvania Link to Aging & Disability Resources, Berks-Lancaster-Lebanon Service Area. The Link program is part of a nationwide effort to take a seamless approach in assisting seniors and adults with disabilities who need help with activities of daily living.
More information can be found here: https://berkslancasterlebanonlink.org/about/about-the-pennsylvania-link-to-aging-and-disability-resources/
The Link Coordinator is required to plan and conduct Link Partner meetings, prepare and submit reports and budgets, develop new partners and promote the ‘Link’ through advertising and other outreach opportunities. Requirements: Minimal Associates degree plus experience in aging, disability or human-services related field.
Interested candidates should submit a resume to blllink@mail.com by Friday, February 2, 2021. As this position is considered to be an Independent Contractor position, interested parties will also provide an hourly billable service unit rate anticipating an average of 35 hrs. per week, with an annual contract not to exceed $50,000.
If you’re interested in applying for or responding to this POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT, please send an email to blllink@mail.com indicating your interest and a resume or list of your credentials by Friday, February 2, 2021. The Service Area Oversight Committee will be reviewing resumes/proposals and scheduling interviews during the week of February 15 through 19, 2021. The plan is to award the position so the Link coordinator can assume the position by early March, 2021.
Veterans’ Event Goes Virtual; Job Fair Now Extended to Non-Vets
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Veterans’ Expo & Job Fair events for Lebanon County, York County and the Capital Area have been combined and redesigned to serve the community virtually.
Originally planned for separate central Pennsylvania locations this fall, the now-virtual Veterans’ Expo will be available online Sept. 15-30 at www.veteransexpo.com.
Presented by OLP Events, the Veterans’ Expo connects active and retired military members and their families with benefits and resources available to them through local community-service providers, healthcare professionals, VA benefits counselors, VFWs and American Legions.
Exhibitors also include continuing-education opportunities and a broad range of businesses, from home improvement, legal services and finance to retirement living and insurance.
Job Fair
The Job Fair has transitioned to virtual as well and has been widened in scope to include both veterans and the area’s civilian community.
Running concurrently with the Veterans’ Expo, the Jobs717 job fair will be open Sept. 15-30 and can be accessed at www.jobs717.com and is open to jobseekers and employers in or near the 717 area code.
During Jobs717, individuals seeking employment can browse through employer thumbnails and select the companies of their choice to learn more information.
Each employer’s custom page will include their company information, website link, job vacancies, social media links, and contact info so jobseekers can connect one-on-one with company representatives.
Employers will represent a large range of industries, including construction, management, administrative/clerical, warehouse, sales, customer service, manufacturing, banking, computer tech/IT and others.
Event sponsors include 50plus LIFE; American Legion Department of Pennsylvania; Church & Dwight Co., Inc.; BusinessWoman magazine; Disabled American Veterans; Pennsylvania State Headquarters VFW; and WHTM abc27.
Sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities are still available. For more information, call (717) 285-1350 or email info@onlinepub.com.
SOURCE: news release
“Nearly 1 in 10 Health Care Workers Lost Their Job Between February and April, But Health Care Employment Rebounded Slightly in May” – Kaiser Family Foundation
“A new chart collection explores the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. health care workforce, and finds that between February and April 2020, nearly 1.5 million health care jobs were lost. While more than 300,000 health services jobs were recovered in May 2020, mainly in dental offices, employment in some health care settings continued to decrease.
“The rise in health care unemployment follows a sharp decline in utilization and revenue for non-emergency services. Many providers delayed or canceled appointments for routine care and elective procedures amid concerns that COVID-19 patients would overwhelm the health system; others closed their facilities entirely. Many patients also chose to forgo non-emergency care, presumably due to stay-at-home orders issued by local governments and fear of contracting the virus in health care settings.
“Workers in ambulatory health care settings, like dental and physician’s offices, have been particularly hard-hit, accounting for more than half of total health care job losses between February and May 2020.
“The chart collection also includes data on gender disparities and geographic variation in health care job loss, as well as a breakdown of job loss by sector.”
“Pandemic exposes low pay and scant protections for nursing assistants and home-care aides” – The Los Angeles Times
“Personal care assistant Maria Colville leaves home for her job caring for an elderly woman in Watertown, Mass. – (Lane Turner / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
by Rowan Moore Garety
“When she heard friends working at Lowe’s were in line for $300 hazard-pay bonuses, Allanah Smit wondered why her employer, Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss., had no such plans. ‘Healthcare workers deserve hazard pay too,” she declared on Twitter. “Yes, we chose this profession, but we didn’t sign up to fight a global pandemic with ONE N-95 respirator and improper PPE.’
“As a certified nursing assistant, Smit makes just over $14 an hour to bathe, feed, and reposition patients recovering from car accidents, strokes, and major surgeries like hip replacements. When elective surgeries were suspended last week as the coronavirus spread from hot spots such as New Orleans, Smit began caring for patients with symptoms of COVID-19.
“As the healthcare system braces for the full impact of the pandemic, the shortage of doctors and nurses in epicenters like New York has gotten massive attention.
“Less scrutiny has been paid to home health aides, personal care aides and certified nursing assistants — ”
“Age Bias That’s Barred by Law Appears in Thousands of Job Listings” – AARP
ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL SPELLA
With the words they use, employers keep experienced workers from applying
by Kenneth Terrell
“‘This is an excellent opportunity for a recent college graduate looking to get their start in automotive!!’ reads a recent job posting on LinkedIn.
“‘The ideal candidate is a digital native that is fueled by big ideas, driven by measurable results and is inspired to lead,’ says another posting, also on LinkedIn, for a mid-level marketing position at Amazon.
“‘Current College Students — Now Hiring Product Demonstrators!’ says a third ad, from a company that specializes in product demonstrations and wants candidates with flexible hours.
“The common thread through these three postings: Each uses age-biased language that is discouraged by advocates for older workers and in some cases could be legal evidence of discrimination.”
Continue reading this article; click here.
“People of all generations are working together. Do they make sense to each other?” – MarketPlace
“Ellipses and emoji: How age affects communication at work”
One Friday afternoon, Stuart Horgan sent off a big presentation to his 56-year-old manager. “And he just responds, ‘Thanks … enjoy the weekend …’” Horgan, a millennial, said. “I definitely looked at the presentation for probably like six hours that weekend trying to figure out what was wrong with it.” In struggling to understand correspondence stripped of exclamation marks and smiley faces, Horgan is not alone. Older colleagues, meanwhile, are feeling similarly bothered by the writing conventions of people their junior. “OK, now you look like you’re 10,” said 48-year-old Alex Mahlke of emails packed with emoji. “Do we not have language anymore?” How to get over this workplace hurdle? Not in writing, that’s for sure.
“For Passion or For Money, More Seniors Keep Working” – Stateline
“Wilber Ruiz, left, hoped to retire to his native Peru by now, but at 67 he’s still at work retrieving carts and greeting customers at a Giant supermarket in Ashburn, Virginia. – The Pew Charitable Trusts
“ASHBURN, Va. — At 76, Anne Doane is still stocking shelves in a Wegmans here, leaning to fill a display with hairbrushes as Don Henley’s ‘Boys of Summer’ plays over the store’s sound system.
“‘I never saved throughout my life, so therefore I have to do this,’ Doane said. ‘And because I like it. I want to get out of the house. I want to talk to people. And I need the money.’
“More U.S. workers are working after turning 65, both out of financial necessity and to stay busy, a trend the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sees increasing over the next 10 years. The bureau projects the share of seniors working or actively looking for jobs to rise from 19.6% in 2018 to 23.3% in 2028, nearly double the rate of 1998, when it was less than 12%.
“More than 165,000 seniors are working in grocery stores, earning an average of about $31,000 a year. About half of the more than 9 million workers 65 and older are in retail, health care, business services or education, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data and a Stateline analysis of Current Population Survey microdata.”
“The Pay Gap is an Aging Issue” – NCOA
by Lauren Popham, PhD
“We weren’t surprised when more than half of women responding to a survey we conducted with Ipsos said they are worried about outliving their savings. Income is tied to lots of aspects of aging, but the way that plays out once you turn 60 is very different for men and women. One major reason: the gender pay gap.
“A lifelong problem
“Women are more likely to experience financial insecurity than men, and this discrepancy becomes even more pronounced later in life. Making less than their male coworkers means women have less money saved when they retired, and will draw less money from Social Security once they’re eligible. We’re left with sobering statistics like this from the Health and Retirement Study: half of women age 60 or older have household incomes below $39,600, yet the median income for men in the same age range is $55,000.
“Despite entering retirement age at a disadvantage, women tend to live longer and face more out-of-pocket costs for things like medication each year.”
Read this article in its entirety at National Council on Aging blog.
“What baby boomers can learn from millennials at work- and vice versa” – TEDTalk
Recall the 2015 movie, The Intern with Robert DeNiro?
AARP reports, “The job market is looking bright for older Americans who are looking for jobs.
“If you think older workers are sitting around twiddling their thumbs, hesitant to contact employers in a tightening labor market, you’d be wrong. In February, the unemployment rate for those 55 and older was 3.2 percent — nearly a full point lower than the overall 4.1 percent rate for the entire U.S. population and drastically lower than the 14.4 percent rate for teens.”
“For the first time ever, we have five generations in the workplace at the same time, says entrepreneur Chip Conley. What would happen if we got intentional about how we all work together? In this accessible talk, Conley shows how age diversity makes companies stronger and calls for different generations to mentor each other at work, with wisdom flowing from old to young and young to old alike.” – Watch this energizing 12-minute TEDTalk.
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