§4104A Collaborative veterans’ training, mentoring, and placement program

Summary

The Secretary must give grants to up to three eligible nonprofit groups for two-year projects. The grants pay for training and one-on-one mentoring for veterans who want jobs. Grant winners must work with disabled veterans’ outreach specialists, local veterans’ employment representatives, and the State and local boards under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. That teamwork must help place trained veterans into meaningful jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency. Each veteran in the program must have a mentor who gives career advice and helps with resumes and interview skills. To get a grant, a nonprofit (a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) and 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code) must apply and explain how it will collaborate, run training that leads to job placement, and provide mentors. The Secretary must report to Congress within six months after the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 was enacted about the grant process, who got grants, and how they worked together. Within 18 months after that Act, the Secretary must assess and report on performance, including the number of veterans who applied, started training, finished training, were placed in jobs, and remained employed, how the grant money was used, and whether funding should continue after 2013. Up to $4,500,000 is authorized for fiscal years 2012 and 2013. “Appropriate committees of Congress” means the Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs and on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs and on Education and the Workforce.