Wounded warriors and transitioning service members can land a job with the Department of Veterans Affairs and continue to help their fellow veterans by completing a national-level Veterans Benefits Administration training program while still on active duty.
VBA’s Warrior Training Advancement Course (WARTAC) is a skill-bridge education and employment opportunity targeted to service members in their final 180 days of active duty military status.
“This training program provides its participants the opportunity to learn the skill set of the rating veteran service representative or the veteran service representative,” Navy veteran Kristina Messenger, who is now deputy executive director of operations in the VBA Compensation Service and oversees the program explained during a media roundtable on Wednesday.
Depending upon which branch of the armed services they are in, potential participants would go through their career skills manager or transition program manager to apply for acceptance into the program.
With command approval and following acceptance into the program, veteran service representative candidates go through six weeks of training while rating veteran service representatives attend 11 weeks of training. Veteran Service Representatives begin their civil service careers as a GS-7 while Rating Veteran Service Representatives begin as a GS-9.
“The sky is the limit when these service members come in,” Messenger, who began her VA career as a veteran service representative, said.
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Upon successfully completing the program, Messenger said participants have the opportunity to serve their fellow veterans at one of 55 regional Veterans Benefits Administration offices around the country.
WARTAC is relatively new and small but is growing, Messenger said, WARTAC was initially stood up as a pilot program in 2014 with six people. Two hundred people came through the program in 2022 and a little over 400 are expected this year.
“This program is special because through it we can work directly with and assist service members leaving the military and give them the opportunity to continue to serve our nation by serving veterans, service members and their families,” she said.
Messenger said that post-military employment is a concern for transitioning service members.
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“This program is really a way to alleviate some of that stress by having gainful employment for those service members,” she added. “It also gives VA new employees who understand what service members and veterans who are filing claims are going through.”
Air Force veteran Scott Clark graduated from the program in December of 2022 and began working at VBA’s regional office in Phoenix, Arizona a few weeks later. He currently works directly with veterans as they enter the facility.
"You know the old saying, 'If you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life,'" Clark said in a recent VA news release. "I seriously love coming to work."
VBA is currently in a telework posture and requires staff to come physically into the office two days per pay period, Messenger said.
To learn more about the program, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.