WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs has approved applications for all 45,000 slots available in fiscal year 2012 under the successful Veterans Retraining Assistance Program and is in the process of approving applications for a total of 54,000 slots available in 2013.

“At VA, we know first-hand that Veterans make exceptional employees, which is why this administration has deployed a full-court press to connect veterans with good jobs,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “The surge of veterans applying for VRAP demonstrates this program’s importance to provide unemployed veterans the opportunity to find employment in high-demand fields.”

VRAP is a new training and education program for unemployed Veterans who want to upgrade their skills for high-demand jobs. The goal of VRAP is to train a total of 99,000 veterans over the next two years in more than 200 job skills that the Department of Labor has determined are the most sought-after by employers.

The joint VA/DOL program is a provision of the Veterans Opportunity to Work to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, which Congress passed and President Obama signed into law in Nov. 2011. The program allows qualifying veterans to receive up to 12 months of education assistance equal to the current full-time Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty rate of $1,473 per month. Starting Oct. 1, the rate increased to $1546 per month.

To be eligible for VRAP, a veteran must be 35-60 years old, unemployed on the day of application and not dishonorably discharged; not be eligible for any other VA education benefit program; not be enrolled in a federal or state job-training program within the last 180 days; and not receive VA compensation at the 100 percent rate due to individual unemployability.

Veterans approved for VRAP are encouraged to enroll as soon as possible and begin training full-time in a VA-approved program of study at their local community college or technical school. The program of study must lead to an associate degree, a non-college degree or a certificate for a high-demand occupation as defined by DOL.

Some of the high-demand job training programs veterans pursued in 2012 include computer support specialist, general and operations manager, business operations specialist and heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic and installer.

Potential applicants can learn more about VRAP and apply online at www.benefits.va.gov/VOW, or call VA toll-free at 1-800-827-1000. Information about the Department of Labor’s programs for veterans is available at www.dol.gov/vets. Veterans can also visit the nearly 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers across the nation, listed at www.servicelocator.org, for in-person employment assistance.