From Military Service to Digital Careers

Sieberg: According to the VA, about 200,000 military service members transition to civilian life each year, posing major life changes for them and their families. Gaining digital skills can help ease the challenges of transition to employment after separation from the military. Hello, I'm Daniel Sieberg, and this is "Getting Connected," powered by Comcast Newsmakers. We're on location at the 2024 Skills Summit in Washington D.C. And joining me now is Bertina Ceccarelli. She is the CEO of NPower. An organization working to create pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for military veterans and young adults, from underserved communities. Bertina, thank you so much for being here.

Ceccarelli: It's good to be here.

Sieberg: So let's talk about some of the challenges, then, that service members and their families are facing. What are you seeing?

Ceccarelli: Yeah, so, you know, there's several challenges that we see, that we see particularly in those who choose to enlist into the military. And first it's simply an awareness, of what their options might look like, once they exit the military. In fact, we find that among enlisted personal, about 80% will not find a living wage job within a full year, following their transition from the military. The second, is once you have identified a potential path, how do you translate your military skills into what will help you succeed in that new job. And then finally I would say a limited understanding on the part of some corporate employers, on just how valuable skills learned in the military are in adding value to your business. And, when we work with military personnel, we see an abundance of leadership, even for individuals who might not necessarily be officers, as well as situational awareness, agile problem solving, and working in complex systems, under context that changes dramatically every day.

Sieberg: Hmm, and that transition process from service to civilian life, can take several months. What is NPower doing to address some of those challenges?

Ceccarelli: Well it's one of the things I'm most excited about. And one of our fastest growing programs is through a program with the Department of Defense called SkillBridge. We work with those individuals transitioning within six months of their separation date from the military. And what we are doing is surrounding them with hard technical expertise in cybersecurity where they're earning industry recognized credentials. It's a 10-week boot camp style program, where they are approved by their commanding officers and they're not only learning the technical skills behind cybersecurity, but also how to think about that transition into your first civilian job. And I might tell you the story about Juan, because I think he really represents the kind of success that we are seeing in this program. He enlisted out of high school, from his home community in San Antonio, Texas. His job in the Navy, where he was for six years, was loading bombs on planes. Now in the first instance it might not seem like that job translates to cybersecurity but, it was an industry he wanted to get into. He found the NPower program, took our course, excelled and when he left the military, found a great job immediately after service with a fairly small defense contractor, making about two and a half times his military salary. Less than a year later he was recruited by a much larger defense contractor, where he yet again doubled his salary. And that's just one story. And we're training two to three hundred individuals every year, where it's a salary increase that benefits their career and their trajectory, but importantly that of their families.

Sieberg: And that path to tech, you also work with individuals who identify as trans and nonbinary, how are you helping those individuals as well?

Ceccarelli: Well it's important to note that that, the category of individuals you just described, represents less than 5% of professionals in the tech workforce. So, part of our mission at NPower is really to increase representation and diversity in the tech workforce. For that population, most of whom are working already, but in jobs that have limited mobility. Jobs maybe like a customer service manager, where they're used to working with data, they are problem solving in real time every hour of every day. The kinds of skills that translate to much higher paid, higher mobility tech careers. So we've structured a relatively novel training program, where these individuals, at night or on weekends, working around their work schedule, can upskill in software development. Where they can double or triple their salaries and have a much better trajectory economically over the course of the next four to five years.

Sieberg: Going forward from here, over the next four to five years, what this success look like for NPower?

Ceccarelli: Success looks like doing more of what we do today, in a way that helps four to five times more individuals access great career track jobs. Today we serve about 2,600 people across 10 states. Our goal by 2030, is to serve 15,000 with the same high level of career outcomes, for those individuals. And to do that, it's really expanding the types of individuals we serve and how we serve them. Looking at different modalities and different curricula, to tie back to what we know industry needs.

Sieberg: Bertina Ceccarelli, CEO of NPower, thank you so much for joining us.

Ceccarelli: It's a pleasure.

Sieberg: And thanks to you as well, for watching. For more conversations about digital equity and broadband expansion, visit gettingconnected.com. I'm Daniel Sieberg.