Veterans face many challenges during the transition from military to civilian life. One of the main difficulties is often translating the abilities that they learned and developed during their service into skills that are marketable in the civilian workforce.
Despite what recruiters tell you when you join, attributes like teamwork and determination, while certainly desirable in an employee, don’t stand up on a resume when rated against others with a business degree and industry specific experience. Unfortunately many of the skills learned in the military don’t translate directly into the type of experience that employers want, but there are organizations that are stepping up to help veterans make the transition from the battlefield to the corporate world.
Dog Tag Inc. is a non-profit that has been serving veterans and military spouses in Washington DC through their small business and entrepreneurship training fellowship program since 2013. The program combines courses from a world-class university, a series of guest lectures by corporate leaders, and hands-on experience managing a working small business. At the end of the program, fellows receive a certificate in Business Administration from Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies.
Dog Tag was founded by Father Rick Curry and Connie Milstein with the goal of helping wounded and disabled veterans receive training for civilian careers. Since its inception the program has grown to include military spouses and military translators displaced by the wars. Dog Tag operates a bakery in Georgetown which provides a small-business management training platform for the fellowship, and helps generate financial support for the non-profit. The five-month program has so far trained two classes of ten fellows each, and they are currently accepting applications for the 2016 sessions.
For more information on the fellowship visit www.dogtaginc.org or stop by the bakery Tuesday through Sunday 8-6 at 3206 Grace Street NW in Georgetown.
