Start here, because it changes what kind of campaign this is. Almost half of a large, well-paid federal technical workforce is already people who served. Veteran unemployment was 3.5% in 2025 against 4.2% for non-veterans. Post-9/11 veterans are over-represented in computer and mathematical occupations by 2.1 percentage points.
Veterans are not behind. On the measures that matter here they are ahead, and a campaign pretending otherwise would be both false and insulting.
So this campaign is about something else entirely: benefits that expire unclaimed and windows that close. And about one overlap — 24.1% of veterans live in rural areas against 19.3% of the population, so the rural training problem and the veteran training problem are substantially the same people.
The five findings
Forty-One Percent
41% of the federal IT management workforce is veterans. The route is well travelled and badly signposted.
One Hundred Eighty Days
SkillBridge exists for the last 180 days of your service. Then it is gone, and it needs commander approval.
No Time Limit
VR&E has no expiry for anyone discharged on or after 1 January 2013, and a 10% rating qualifies.
Twenty-Four Point One
24.1% of American veterans live in rural areas against 19.3% of Americans. The benefits travel with you.
Thirteen and Twenty-One
13% of enlisted and 21% of officers already did technical work. The gap is the résumé language.
Each of the five is a full package: the finding, eight routes, all 51 states, and every one of the 3,152 counties in the United States. A search from anywhere in the country has an answer written for that place.
The eight routes, and which have a clock on them
| Route | Who is obliged |
|---|---|
| DoD SkillBridge | A window that closes — your last 180 days of service |
| The Post-9/11 GI Bill | Already earned — and it covers certification exams and apprenticeships |
| VET TEC 2.0 | A window that closes — 4,000 seats a year |
| VR&E, Chapter 31 | Already earned — no time limit if discharged on or after 1 January 2013 |
| The clearance you already hold | Already earned — an asset with a shelf life |
| The job you already did | Already earned — translation is the whole task |
| Federal and public employment | Veterans' preference and special appointing authorities |
| WIOA and registered apprenticeship | Priority of service, by law, in every county |
Three of these you have already earned and they wait for you. Two have a window that closes and will not reopen. Read the ones with a clock first.
Every campaign
Amigos en Acción runs eight. Each takes one group and one barrier; the last one is the sum of them.
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