VECTR program to give metro Atlanta veterans a helping hand
74 FACTBOOK 2021
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By Aleks Gilbert
agilbert@mdjonline.com
Veterans entering the civilian
workforce sometimes struggle
to parlay the skills they learned
during their service into good
jobs outside their military careers.
But that may soon change for the
estimated 215,000 former service
members working in Cobb and
surrounding counties.
Included in the state budget
Gov. Brian Kemp signed in July is
$2.25 million for Georgia’s second
Veterans Education Career Transition
Resource center. The money
will be used to renovate part of
Chattahoochee Technical College’s
Marietta campus, outfitting the
technical school for veteran-specific
training programs.
One such center already exists
in Warner Robins. According
to its website, VECTR offers
“unique, accelerated programs
in high demand and strategic
industries tailored to abbreviate
the process of receiving post-secondary
certificates and degrees
by recognizing the extensive
training veterans receive during
their military service.”
Cobb Chamber of Commerce
Chairman John Loud said the
location of another VECTR center
in Cobb represents the fulfillment
of a commitment he made before
assuming the chairmanship to
boost the county’s small businesses,
workforce development and
Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
Loud first spoke with Kemp
about bringing a VECTR Center
to Cobb in a 2019 meeting at the
Capitol. During the meeting, Loud
made the center one of his top
points of conversation.
Loud said the new facility would
attract retired military veterans
from across the state and country
to metro Atlanta. He expects
skilled workers from the military
to seek out the VECTR training
programs to earn certification and
begin their civilian careers.
“We, as a state, get to get this
workforce to come here, stay here
and then get jobs within all of our
small businesses,” Loud said.
About 39,000 people have gone
through the VECTR Center in
Warner Robbins, Loud said. But
relatively few came from the metro
Atlanta area, despite it being home
to about 215,000 veterans.
A new center would have cost
some $15 million, he said, but it
was a nonstarter, with the governor
having committed to cutting the
state’s budget even before it was
decimated by the coronavirus.
In December, Chamber CEO
Sharon Mason estimated the cost
of operating a center located in an
existing building at about $300,000.
VECTR focuses on training
veterans in strategic industries.
Mason said a specific list of such
industries doesn’t yet exist —
metro Atlanta’s needs are different
from those of south and central
Georgia, where the existing
VECTR center is located. She did
say, however, that the chamber’s
focus in recent years has been on
technology, biotech and health
care, advanced manufacturing and
construction and trade.
The facility will be based at
Chattahoochee Tech and work in
partnership with Kennesaw State
University, Georgia Tech and the
local business community, Loud
wrote in a letter to the MDJ after
the budget was passed, adding
that the majority of its ongoing
expenses will be funded by federal
government programs such as
the GI bill.
BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEV.
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