Credentialing summit aims to create ‘ripple effect’

Credentialing summit aims to create ‘ripple effect’

On Feb. 17, about 200 leaders in government and the private sector from cities across America will converge in Washington for a two-day, invitation-only summit with about 30 experts on job licensing, credentialing and certification. The experts will examine best practices for credentialing veterans in the private sector – practices that recognize military training and experience for civilian job requirements – and discuss specific strategies as to how attendees can emulate those best practices.

“We want all of our attendees to go back to their communities and lead local efforts to break down barriers that are stopping our veterans from joining the civilian workforce,” said Joe Sharpe, director of The American Legion’s Veterans Employment & Education Division (VEED).

Steve Gonzalez, VEED's assistant director, said, “We don’t want this to be a summit where people show up, take some notes, say how great it was, then go jump back into their silos. We want attendees to collaborate together to make specific changes in laws, regulations, college courses – whatever it takes to make things easier for veterans who want to earn a living.”

Gonzalez and Lisa Lutz, president of Solutions for Information Design, LLC, are co-leaders of the Legion’s second credentialing summit. The first was held in 2012, also in Washington, and made quite an impact on credentialing issues, according to Lutz.

“The American Legion’s last summit really turned the spotlight on this issue,” Lutz said. “As a result, we’ve seen legislation passed at the national and state levels that improves the credentialing landscape for veterans. We’ve seen the Department of Defense focusing in on these issues, and the White House has instituted a number of credentialing pilot initiatives since then.”

One important issue to be scrutinized at the summit is how to ensure the quality of credentials, Lutz said. “The Legion has been on Capitol Hill talking about how there’s a need to ensure the quality of credentials earned by veterans and servicemembers – that the credential is worth the paper it’s printed on, essentially. We’ve had a quality assurance mechanism for decades in higher education, but the need to have something similar for certification is not widely demanded in the civilian workforce – probably because credentialing is a relatively new form of establishing occupational competency."

The American Legion has been pushing for changes in credentialing practices for about two decades, Sharpe said, and the Washington summit is the Legion’s latest initiative to help transitioning servicemembers get full-time employment as civilians.

“What we’re looking for from the summit is a giant ripple effect,” Sharpe said. “This summit is like a big rock dropped into a calm, serene lake. We want to create ripples of change that will transform our communities from coast to coast. Veterans shouldn’t have to wait years for jobs they are already qualified for – they should be hired immediately. The people attending this summit can achieve that kind of goal.”

Sponsors for the event are CBS Broadcasting, Inc., Colorado State University Global Campus, Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Microsoft and Pearson VUE.