Military Spouse Employment Partnership: What's the Deal?

If you've been following the news or any military websites/blogs, you've probably heard some "buzz" about the new Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) that's recently been put in place.

The U.S. Department of Defense just yesterday released an article about the growth in this Spouse Employment program. Some 400,000 jobs have been posted with the partnership since it was created last June and 22,000 military spouses have been hired. Another 34 companies were added to the existing 94 program partners, which include Goodwill Industries, Safeway, Volt Workforce Solutions and others ranging from data processing to real estate to banks.

The goal of this program is to give spouses broad employment opportunities and a career, not just "another job." Participating employers make a pledge to recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses in portable careers. In addition, MSEP aims to hold frequent job hiring fairs on or near military installations. 

Also, this program's goal is to have every state legislature adopt transfer agreements for military spouses' professional licenses by 2014.

Robert Gordon, the assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy, has been heading this project and says that the first step in this partnership is undergoing an employer vetting process, "we begin by making sure employers understand that our spouses need career opportunities that fit with their lifestyle- opportunities that are portable, mobile, flexible and incorporate telecommuting whenever possible." 

Gordon says the second step is "bringing spouses and employers together" through the MSEP job postings website.   

Let's Give it a Try

If you have experienced success through using the MSEP website, congrats and I would love to hear about your experience. I am hoping in the coming weeks I can get some more information from MSEP on how exactly their website increases military spouse employment (vs. using Monster.com, for example). 

Check out the website to find available jobs in your area. 

MSEP also has a Facebook page that you can "like" to get updates on jobs that are posted on their website, as well as career coaching advice. 

Happy Friday to you all! Please forward this post along to anyone that could benefit from this information. I will be doing a follow-up post once I get some of my questions answered. 

xoxo,

Whit