DOL Trivia question: What year was the National Veterans’ Training Institute (NVTI) established?
Hints: Top Gun was the highest-grossing film, We Are the World won four Grammy Awards, and the Chicago Bears won their sole Super Bowl. Answer: 1986
This month, NVTI celebrates 35 years of helping veterans find meaningful employment. As we reflect on how much the world has changed since 1986, let’s recognize how NVTI has evolved over the past three and a half decades to better assist our veterans with the challenges they face in joining the workforce.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service established NVTI with the purpose of providing training to service representatives who would use their specialized training to help veterans navigate their transition into the civilian workforce.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service established NVTI with the purpose of providing training to service representatives who would use their specialized training to help veterans navigate their transition into the civilian workforce. Volume 18 of the 1986 Employment and Training Reporter noted that VETS piloted two training courses for Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists and Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives (LVER) staff. NVTI was originally intended to only train 3,200 representatives nationwide, but the curriculum was so coveted that Congressional legislation, 38 U.S. Code 4109 designated NVTI as a permanent institution in 1991. Since NVTI’s inception, more than 70,000 veterans’ employment and training professionals have attended their training.
Pathways into the workforce have changed over the years, so NVTI redesigned its legacy courses to modernize the curriculum. While NVTI offers professional development courses designed to ensure that participants have the basic skills to meet veterans’ needs, they also provide leadership, case management, federal grant management, and career coaching classes for special populations. The training focuses on aspects that are unique to the veteran population, teaching representatives to leverage a veterans’ military service by highlighting their distinctive talents and skills.
NVTI offers an array of classes through a variety of educational platforms. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they provided multiple virtual learning options as well as in-person classes at the NVTI Training Center in Dallas, TX and through regional training seminars. Since the pandemic, all of the training can be completed online through either a self-paced course where participants complete the coursework at their own speed, as part of a live virtual class that meets regularly throughout the course or as an asynchronous cohort where students collaborate with each other through the student portal. While things have changed a lot since 1986, NVTI’s mission has remained the same: to further develop and enhance the professional skills of veterans’ employment and training service providers throughout the United States. NVTI is leading the way in making training accessible to everyone through its online learning resources. Check out NVTI.org to access their microlearning elements, podcasts, and webinars on how to best serve veterans, as well as to connect with other practitioners through their student portal, Making Careers Happen for Veterans: Community of Practice.