How SkillBridge helped Navy veteran Juan Cruz transition into a civilian lifestyle

RICHMOND, Va. -- There are many critical skills veterans can learn when serving our nation. But Navy veteran Juan Cruz will be the first to tell you not all of those skills seamlessly transfer to a civilian lifestyle.

“Everything I did on the military side was ordinance related; weapons assembly, disassembly, aircraft maintenance, munitions buildup, working with small explosives,” Cruz explained. “You can imagine that trying to convert that into some skill that an employer might find valuable.”

After eight and a half years in the Navy, Cruz says the transition from active duty to private citizen was an uphill battle he feared he may have to fight alone.

“Jumping back into the civilian world with no experience in the field I wanted to be in was actually my main concern,” Cruz said. “I had a lot going through my mind about how I was going to support my family for the upcoming future.”

Fortunately, Cruz says he found support during his transition from a career serving the country thanks to a program offered through the Department of Defense which helped him land a career in information technology.

“Right now I’m a junior Linux systems administrator,” Cruz said. "I’m trying to establish a general knowledge in the realm of everything in IT, but right now I’m monitoring systems, configuring hardware, configuring software."

The program that helped Cruz and other veterans like him is called NPower SkillBridge.

Cruz and more than 50 of his fellow students graduated from the program in 2023 at Virginia War Memorial.

SkillBridge is one of the many programs associated with NPower which specifically deals with training programs in the field of IT and Cyber Security.

Active Duty military members are put through a rigorous 10-week cyber boot camp to help them earn as many as four or more highly sought-after industry certifications.

From there, Executive Director of the program Col. Christopher Starling says assistance is provided to market the resumes of its SkillBridge students to companies in need of those with cyber skills.

Starling says more than 70 other service members leaving the military will be doing the same Wednesday.

“NPower is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to economic prosperity for young adults and military-connected people," Starling said. “SkillBridge is a Department of Defense program whereby during your last six months of active duty you can either apprentice, intern, or train for a follow on career."

Starling says far too often active duty service members are left behind in a situation where they no longer have the military supporting their most basic needs after their service has ended.

“It can be fraught with anxiety," Starling explained. “Your paycheck is going away, your housing allowance is going away, your insurance is going away, your medical coverage is going away. And if you don't have a job or profession that can cover those things it’s a very stressful time.”

“The transition process is something the Department of Defense has been taking very seriously for a long time,” Starling said. ”I think this program addresses the anxiety piece, it addresses in some ways the mental health piece of a major transition.”

Starling says each branch of the military has its own take on the SkillBridge program with several focuses including auto mechanics, marketing, city managers, and more.

He believes the earlier military service members can begin thinking about their life after service the smoother the transition they will have especially when taking advantage of programs like SkillBridge.

According to Starling, the program can be found in 11 states including Virginia which began SkillBridge in 2023. Since then, more 220 students have been trained. He adds that NPower serves about 3000 people a year across the country.

“We’ve even figured out how to include people in overseas bases like Germany, Japan, Bahrain, out in Hawaii,” Starling said. “We are really focusing on how we make this a truly worldwide program, but our roots right now are at joint base Myers-Henderson Hall and Norfolk, Virginia.”

Like Cruz, Navy Veteran Alexander Gibson is also finding success in a career managing radio frequencies as he pursues a master's degree.

“Earning these certifications and being able to apply them directly to a new position that ultimately meant the best of both worlds from my cyber security journey to my prior experience as a navy veteran,” Gibson said.

“It’s one more way to set yourself up for success so that when your Department of Defense paycheck ends, your civilian paycheck begins," Starling said. “You can go from defending the nation to protecting the network, it's a natural move.”

The SkillBridge program is unique to active duty, but Starling says veterans and even spouses of veterans who want to get into technology careers can take advantage of similar programs offered through NPower. More information on those initiatives can be found at NPower.org.

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