Faced with frequent moves and deployments, military spouses have a unique challenge when it comes to growing their careers - in fact, they are four times more likely to be unemployed than their civilian counterparts. In order to help set them up for success, re-skilling and re-training are key as well as identifying remote and flexible work options.
To help solve this pressing challenge, LinkedIn is expanding our military and veterans program to include military spouses through a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Spouse Education and Career Opportunities program. Beginning this July, we’ll provide one year of LinkedIn Premium to every military spouse during each of their moves to new installations to help their career transitions, and once again upon conclusion of military service.
This will include free access to our online library of more than 12,000 LinkedIn Learning courses, including our newly-launched learning path designed to help military spouses succeed in flexible, freelance, or remote work opportunities. We’ll be working to foster this community through the DoD’s growing military spouse LinkedIn group, as well as directing employers to this community as a top source of talent.
Our active servicemembers and veterans are surrounded by a dedicated community of spouses serving right alongside those who wear our nation’s uniform. With more than 650,000 military spouses of active duty servicemembers, and with the average military family moving to a new installation every 2-3 years, an estimated 220,000 military spouses are economically displaced every year. But these military spouses have soft skills that make them valuable to potential employers: they are resilient, resourceful, adaptable, and enterprising - not to mention adept at navigating uncertainty.
We introduced our program to support US military servicemembers and veterans through their transition from military to civilian life seven years ago. While our focus began with offering a one-year upgrade to LinkedIn Premium, over the years we’ve expanded to include access to LinkedIn Learning, custom online training, extensive partnerships with government agencies and nonprofits that serve veterans, and tools for companies seeking to hire veterans. Today, more than 2.4 million active servicemembers and veterans comprise one of the most active and engaged communities on LinkedIn - outpacing nonveterans in everything from network size to a host of soft skills and tech skills.
Today, we’re renaming our veterans program to now be known as our Military and Veterans Programs to be inclusive of the important community of military spouses. We’re also re-launching our veterans portal to include career resources for military spouses and will be continually updating the newly re-named linkedin.com/military as new resources and partnerships are developed. Moving forward, through our partnership with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, we will also be exploring ways to bring LinkedIn Premium to the spouses of those killed on active duty, as well as the caretakers of wounded veterans. Our Microsoft Military Affairs partners also shared today that as part of their commitment to the military spouse community, they will launch a pilot program to provide spouses with technology skills training beginning in September. We are excited to set out on this journey and can’t wait to see the great things the military spouse community can accomplish.