Hello Everyone,
There was another post that had come back regarding an excellent program (VA Vocational Rehabilitation & Education). I would like to re-post my comments as this program is not very well known.
The VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Education (VR&E) program is designed to help get Veterans back into the workforce in areas we can be productive and successful, but there are restrictions of course. Some highlights of the program are: if selected as a candidate and lets say you wanted to become a certified mechanic and were approved for that all of your training and certifications as well as tools could be provided. Other possibilities are returning to school for a certification or degree. Each candidate will be assigned a contact and your options will be tailored to your abilities and agreed goals.
If you have a service connected disability there are time limits to your eligibility so be sure to discuss that with your VSO or if in the VR&E program. I think that a Veteran with a service connected disability of 50% or higher time limit does not expire. Also there may be grants available if no disabilities at all.
To get started know that every U.S. State has their own Veteran Service Officers (VSO) within defined regions of the State. I suggest you look up your own (each State has their own Department of Military and Veteran Affairs) and contact them directly.
These VSO's are usually very helpful to navigate through the VA programs and options for Veterans. I can never say enough of mine in Northern NJ. They can assist with understanding disability ratings, filing requests for increased benefits if conditions worsen, and many others.
Make sure you know all of the options and programs you qualify for as a Veteran and have your regional VSO get to know you. You might be throwing away opportunities you never knew you had!
Semper Fi
Ray
Answers
Hello,
I am using Chapter 31 which is the Voc Rehab. Tuition, books and housing stipend is covered. I just completed my associates and I'll major in Transportation and Logistics.
It is a great program.
Unfortunately, there are some veterans who are not aware of this opportunity. Thank you for spreading the word out.
Jim
Another thing I have been advised is DO NOT allow your MOS/Rate/or specialty stop you from applying. I personally know an Officer who had a Master's Degree in Business Admin- I'm not positive, but anyway, a Master's. He went in for Voc Rehab and explained that all he knew was piloting. He hadn't done a whole lot of administrating anything, and always considered himself a pilot first, and anything else was just how the Navy occupied him when he was piloting. He said he wasn't interested in flying, but had developed great interest in IT while active duty. He was able to go to school for Computer Science, and to specifically earn several "must have" certifications. They even provided a laptop for him to use. So don't assume you know you can't qualify. Like everything else in the service, be prepared to explain your logic to the Voc Rehab rep, because ultimately it boils down to convincing that person you NEED the rehab to be productive.
Jim,
It is my pleasure to be of some service .Please help spread the word.
Best Regards,
Ray
Dayron,
The best way for you to locate your local State VSO is to go on the State website and select the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs. There are regions that each one covers and I would not want to give you the wrong contact.
Their link to the NJ site is: http://www.state.nj.us/military and they have quite a lot of information to check out.
Best Regards,
Ray Martinelli
The Mission Continues is worth checking into, and most schools today have a Veteran's representative that can help give you information. There are a variety of Veterans Upward Bound Programs that can help. DAV representatives are good sources of advice for local help. The VA Hospitals generally will have some type of information available with outreach programs.
Most colleges near where you are planning to go to school have financial aid sections where you can go to fill out a fafsa, to see if you qualify for grant money. Then you can start applying for scholarships. There is no limit for applying for scholarship money. A good place to start is the school where you would like to attend classes. Use the schools financial aid website to find what scholarships are available that they already use as a source for the school, then start applying for scholarships everywhere you can think of, and there are more funds available that do not get given out because they didn't have someone apply. There are also many internship opportunities, and programs where they will pay your education but you are committed to work for so long (Army/Navy ROTC is an example of some of those type). There are many opportunities to teach at urban schools to fund your education. The desire to go back to school is the first thing that you must develop. The way to pay for it, there are always grants, scholarships, loans, internships, and many other opportunities that will help. Pick a school, find a program, find a way to fund it. Chapter 31, Post 9-11 benefits, scholarships, grants, and if all else fails, student loans. Just go back to school now!
I'd like to add that I work closely with our Regional Voc Rehab office and there are some cases where you can be approved with as little as a 10% rating. It will depend on the Regional Office and the Counselor you work with. Be sure that if you have used Post 9-11 GI Bill and have a disability rating that you try to get into Voc Rehab while you still have some Post 9-11 benefits left. This will allow you to still receive the Housing rating from Post 9-11 while on Voc Rehab and guess what, even if you only have 1 day of Post 9-11 left, you will get that housing as long as you are receiving Voc Rehab.
I would love to provide documentation on this but I can only say this based on my experience as a Certifying Official at a California State University working with currently 30 Voc Rehab recipients this semester alone.
To qualify, you have to have a 20% disability rating.
Eligibility: http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/vre/
Do you happen to know the VSO for northern NJ? I am a 10% service disconnected veteran and I would like to take advantage of this and get some certifications to help me out in the finance industry.
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