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hello and welcome to my presentation on
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policy recommendations for facilitating
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veteran transitions to the cyber
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security
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industry here's the agenda for my
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presentation where I will give
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background on the situation describe the
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problem go through policy
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recommendations as well as the policy
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walkth through evaluate the
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recommendations and describe limitations
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as well as future
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work moving on to the
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introduction in the case of Veteran
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unemployment veterans are not overall
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facing more unemployment than the
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general US
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population however 75% of veterans
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seeking work do not have it on the day
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that they leave the
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military on the brighter side
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57% of veterans across all Industries do
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find a job within 18 180 days of their
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military
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separation and this can be used as a
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reference point
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for whether a
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veteran unemployment program is
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successful or not if it helps a higher
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percentage of veterans find work within
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6 months of program
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completion so let's look at why
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veterans are interested in the Cyber
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industry yet fail to successfully break
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into it or face
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challenges in the
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policy recommendation memo I created the
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problems are described are the
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limitations on Career counseling
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accessible to Veterans which contributes
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to misalign expectations about the cyber
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security field as well as limited access
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to Hands-On training for the industry
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that is government
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funded I found limited information
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on veteran interest in cyber security
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but one indicator could be that
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membership in vetc a US nonprofit that's
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open exclusively to us and Allied
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veterans working or interest in cyber
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security it has grown to over 7,000
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members in seven years the problem is
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Veterans can
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have limited inform information on
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Career Fields like cyber because
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congressionally mandated transition
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courses provide minimal personalized
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career
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counseling the VA limits access to
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chapter 36 career counseling benefits to
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select veterans which I'll describe more
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in the policy
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memo as a result man
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veterans have this idea that cyber
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security is
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hacking unaware of the many other cyber
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roles besides red team in the N nice
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framework veterans like other people
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entering the Cyber industry can also
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have misconceptions about the number of
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entrylevel jobs remote jobs and high
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salary jobs that
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exist if you look at actual
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data from the US Census that studied
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army veterans after their transition you
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see that even for folks with a
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background in cyber operations in the
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military their salaries at the 75th
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percentile are still under six figures
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and even adjusted for inflation they
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will not be much
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higher another challenge for veterans
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trying to enter the cyber security field
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is the limitations on Hands-On training
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options now there are degree programs
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available and Veterans can use their
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post 911 GI Bill benefits for higher
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education like the degree program we're
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doing but the Hands-On
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training now that the vettech program is
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no longer active it's limited to
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skillbridge which is an internship
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program
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for service members still on active duty
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that requires command approval
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and commanders have leeway
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to deny a service member skill
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bridge and the vet tech program did
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provide Hands-On tech training but was
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discontinued perhaps rightfully so as it
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had many issues such as variations
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in program costs and dishonesty with
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some providers
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of
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training Vette Tech when it was active
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did fill a gap for veterans that were
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seeking Hands-On tech training with
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shorter completion times than a degree
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and a wide selection of virtual
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courses providers would return 50 to
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100% of tuition to the Fe a if the
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veteran was not employed 180 days after
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their
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graduation and many providers could be
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exempt from tuition caps if they agree
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to return 100% tuition if the veteran
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failed to find employment then they
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became a preferred provider exempt from
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tuition caps however the Vette Tech
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program
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had limited oversight and actually
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achieved only a 46% employment rate for
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veterans within six months of their
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graduation from the training providers
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even though training providers could
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employ their
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graduates with those problems in mind
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I've made policy recommendations for
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government agencies like the Department
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of Defense Department of Veterans
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Affairs and Department of Labor also
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encouraging nonprofit serving veterans
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to follow best practices my
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recommendations are to simplify access
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to Career counseling for veterans
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providing veterans expanded info on
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Cyber and Technical careers I also do
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recommend expanding
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job training programs for veterans such
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as skillbridge and vettech finally
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working across multiple Departments of
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the government to accurately track
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employment outcomes of government funded
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training
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programs now I'll walk through the
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policy
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memo the memo begins with overview of
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and background about this
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situation regarding veteran employment
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and Veterans being interested in the
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cyber security field it describes the
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problems like I did
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previously
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limited career counseling for veterans
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and limited access to training for
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veterans who don't want to do a degree
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program to expand on my
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recommendations in order to simplify
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find access to Career counseling for
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veterans and provide them more info the
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VA can offer chapter
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36 career counseling benefits to All
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Veterans not just those within a certain
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window of separation or those receiving
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certain benefits already but make career
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counseling accessible to All Veterans
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who may want to change careers in what
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whatever stage of life and career
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counselors that keep a breast of
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Industry Trend so they can remove so
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they can inform service members and
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Veterans on an industry's salary Outlook
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employment availability including the
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availability of remote employment hiring
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practices how they may differ from
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military hiring practices as well as
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Education and Training
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Pathways career counselors can also
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start veterans off on mapping their
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military experiences to cyber roles in
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the nice
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framework for expanding job programs for
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veterans the dod can expand skillbridge
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eligibility to all service members and
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restrict by by exception only for
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administrative disciplinary issues and
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the VA can reboot the vet tech program
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under a single program manager capping
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course costs
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for each classroom hour to be in line
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with the GI bill
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payments and the VA can
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require that
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providers find veteran employment and
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rate high higher than the national
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average which I described as
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57%
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finally the Department of Labor can
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track the veteran population's
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employment rates by education pathway
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and Industry the VA should track
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outcomes of the programs they fun as
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well and this can inform what education
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paths what industries
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do result in successful transitions for
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veterans to evaluate my recommendations
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I compare them to the state of how
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things are being done
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today describe what departments are
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responsible and what affects these
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recommendations would have on veteran
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employment and cyber security
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there are limitations the policy
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recommendations and the memo are high
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level implementation will take time lots
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of time since it's the government and
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many government agencies need to work
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together
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skillbridge eligibility expansion means
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fewer service members will be available
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for their military units to employ in
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their last 6 months of military service
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however it's important to set up service
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members for Success when they return to
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civilian life and someone denied
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opportunity they wanted will not be
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motivated to work
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anyways now expanding VA programs has a
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financial cost however this will
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decrease veteran
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unemployment and that results in lower
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unemployment payouts to RS
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needed in addition I've recommended that
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VTech program costs are capped at the
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cost per hour in line with a post 911 GI
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Bill and collecting data has a cost
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but it's necessary to determine whether
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things are actually
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working the future work I've described
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in the policy memo is the actual
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implementation of the policy
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recommendations by government and any
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nonprofits that want to track and
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improve veteran
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outcomes there is the detail of defining
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what standards V tech training providers
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need to ensure in quality training
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there's room for a tool that can
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facilitate crosswalking military
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experiences with cyber Workforce
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rows and most importantly the analysis
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of data collected and taking action on
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it this concludes my presentation and in
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the final slides you can
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see what references I
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used continuation of work cited