A gap of 4.8 percentage points. The VA's Office of Rural Health counts about 4.5 million rural and highly rural veterans, roughly a quarter of the veteran population, and a third of everyone enrolled in VA health care.
Set that beside this organisation's other finding: 1,960 of America's 3,152 counties sit outside every metropolitan area, and 40% of American public high schools offer no computer science at all. The rural technical-training problem and the veteran technical-training problem are substantially the same people in the same counties.
Which is good news, because veterans in those counties hold something their neighbours do not: benefits that travel. VA education funding is not attached to a building or a district budget. It follows the person. A veteran in a county whose high school never offered computer science has a funded route their classmates never had.
The routes that survive distance are specific. VA education benefits cover online and hybrid programmes. VET TEC 2.0 funds non-degree technology training. Remote federal and contractor technical work is a real and growing market, and federal technical employment exists at VA medical centres, Social Security processing centres, installations and national laboratories in rural counties — not only in Washington. And the commuting zone, not the county, is the right search radius.
See also Outside Every Metro, which covers the same counties from the schooling side.
Where veterans already stand
| Measure | Veterans | Non-veterans |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate, 2025 | 3.5% | 4.2% |
| Share of the civilian labour force, 2025 | 4.9% | — |
| Share of the civilian labour force, 2000 | 10.5% | — |
| Federal IT management workforce | 41% | 59% |
| Living in rural areas | 24.1% | 19.3% |
Unemployment and labour force: BLS Employment Situation of Veterans, 2025 annual averages — BLS notes the 2025 figures are 11-month averages excluding October and are not strictly comparable with other years. Federal IT: OPM FedScope, September 2024, via Pew Research Center. Rural: Census Bureau, Veterans in Rural America, 2011–2015 American Community Survey, against the 2010 Census rural share of the total population.
What you have already earned
- Post-9/11 GI Bill — 36 months, up to 48. Covers certification exams, apprenticeships and non-degree technical training, not only college. va.gov.
- VR&E, Chapter 31 — a 10% service-connected rating qualifies, and there is no time limit if you were discharged on or after 1 January 2013. va.gov.
- VET TEC 2.0 — technology training, 4,000 seats a year, no prior VA education benefit required. va.gov.
- SkillBridge — your last 180 days of service, with commander approval. skillbridge.osd.mil.
- WIOA priority of service — veterans and eligible spouses go first, by law, in every county. CareerOneStop.
- Veterans' preference and special appointing authorities in federal hiring. USAJOBS.
Rates, seat counts and eligibility rules change. These are the doors; verify current terms with VA or DoD before counting on a number.
What to do this week
Find the American Job Center covering your ZIP through CareerOneStop, book an intake appointment, and ask for the Eligible Training Provider List. Ask specifically which providers on it deliver online, because that removes the drive.
Eight routes. Two expire.
Three you already earned. They wait. Two expire. Read those first.
DoD SkillBridge
Work for a civilian employer during your last 180 days. The military keeps paying you.
A window that closesThe Post-9/11 GI Bill
36 months of entitlement. It pays for certification exams and apprenticeships, not just college.
Already earnedVET TEC 2.0
Tech training on VA's money. 4,000 seats a year. You do not need the GI Bill to use it.
A window that closesVR&E — Chapter 31
A 10% rating funds an entire new career. Discharged after 1 January 2013? It never expires.
Already earnedThe clearance you already hold
Your clearance has a shelf life. Most veterans let it lapse without ever learning what it was worth.
Already earnedThe job you already did
You already did technical work. Your résumé just says it in a language nobody outside the military reads.
Already earnedFederal and public employment
41,800 of 101,000 federal IT managers are veterans. This is the most proven route here.
Already earnedWIOA and registered apprenticeship
Federal training money in every county. You go first in the queue, by law.
Publicly or employer fundedBy state
Workforce boards, VA regional offices and federal employers are organised state by state and county by county. Find yours.
Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.