Helping military spouses find employment

The Army Community Service Employment Readiness Program assists individuals in defining and reaching their career goals.

The sacrifices that our Families make are evident in the great number of Spouses who have interrupted their own careers to support their Soldiers.

The Employment Readiness Program seeks to strengthen Fort Gordon Families by offering employment guidance and job skill training.

Family members are encouraged to take advantage of the career counseling services offered at Darling Hall.

Whether you just need local employment information and resume assistance or career assessment, Employment Readiness will guide you through the process.

Individualized counseling is available daily to assist in developing a targeted plan for attaining career goals. Monthly workshops are offered that focus on job skill training. The Automated Resume Workshop is offered the first and fourth Wednesday of each month. Additional training for interviewing, dressing for success, salary negotiating and federal resume writing is offered on a rotating basis.

There is a strong desire on the part of Army Spouses to contribute to a greater quality of life for their Families.

The 2005 Survey of Army Families V, reports that 49% of Army Spouses are working and another 16% are unemployed and seeking jobs. Comparing the national unemployment rate of 6.5% to the 16% rate experienced by Army Families only hints at the scope of the problem.

Spouses are often frustrated by the lack of job opportunities near military installations as well as the poor prospect of career advancement caused by frequent moves.

The Army continues vigorously seeking new avenues to aid Family members in finding employment.

The Army Spouse Employment Partnership, the Army Spouse Career Assessment Tool and the

www.MilitarySpouseJobSearch.org website are three specialized tools that have been developed by the Army to meet the growing need for Family member employment.

The Army Spouse Employment Partnership is an agreement of mutual benefit between the ACS Employment Program and national corporations.

Army Families provide a diverse and talented pool of workers and corporations structure special services to provide opportunities for Army Spouses and a superior workforce for themselves.

On the local level, Employment Readiness cultivates partnerships with employers in the Central Savannah River Area to develop job leads for clients and assists them in targeting the best employment opportunities. Currently, there are over 27 national and 15 local ASEP partners.

The Army Spouse Career Assessment Tool has four inventories to assess your skills, interests, values and personality. Inventory results suggest the types of jobs that one may want to consider in career planning.

The tool is located on the Army One Source website,

aos.myarmylifetoo.com, and is free. One stop job searching can be found on the

www.MilitarySpouseJobSearch.org website.

The search engine pulls jobs from the major job hunting websites and allows individual employers to register and post individual jobs. Local jobs appear on the site that will not be found through popular search engines.

The Employment Readiness Program is a critical support element in the Army's effort to enable readiness by providing the right service at the right cost. The service providers at the ERP office strive to improve Family Readiness by expanding job skill education and employment opportunities for the Fort Gordon Family members.