Dalton Bootsma’s first thought as his tour of duty with the U.S. Navy began to wind down in 2023 was that he wanted to go back home to northwest Iowa – although doing that would require some planning and the flexibility to learn some new skills.
“There’re aren’t too many jobs in the Midwest that offer a guy the chance to look for underwater infrastructure and explosives,” Bootsma said. “So, you kind of have to change your whole mindset.”
Bootsma ended up at Vander Haag’s Inc. in Spencer, launching his new career through a lesser-known federal program available in Iowa that allows transitioning military service members to end their time in uniform as interns in private-sector jobs.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program allows service members to spend up to six months working in civilian jobs before they leave the service. The arrangement ensures that military members have practical civilian skills when they leave active duty. In exchange, employers receive early access to the extreme experience and skills that service members bring to the workplace. The hope is that employers will find that impact valuable enough to offer most military members jobs once their programs are completed.
In the meantime, risk for the employer is kept low by the fact that service members continue to be paid by the military until their time in uniform is complete.
Brad DeBoer, human resource director at Vander Haag’s Inc., said his company “kind of stumbled into SkillBridge almost by accident” after the general manager heard about it through his parents’ involvement in another business. One Google search later, DeBoer was signing up.
“I’ll be honest,” DeBoer said. “I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sooner or later, there’s got to be a catch.”
Since then, Vander Haag’s, which sells a wide variety of parts and equipment for trucks and heavy machinery, has welcomed six service members via SkillBridge. One moved away for family reasons and two ended up going to college, but the other three still work for the company.
Bootsma said he spent roughly 60 days performing a wide variety of roles at Vander Haag before he and his bosses agreed that the best fit was in a sales position.
“The program is really good for both sides,” Bootsma said. “You get to see if you like it, and the company gets to see how you’d benefit the company.”
Most of his job candidates so far, DeBoer noted, have been motivated to succeed. They’ve all had ties to the local area, and their time in uniform has instilled good habits.
“We’ve typically found that guys coming through some branch of the military service typically are very disciplined individuals,” he said. “You don’t have to wonder if they’re going to be showing up for work on Monday morning.”
Jamie Norton, director of Veterans Services at Iowa Workforce Development, said several Iowa employers have used SkillBridge successfully for years – but another 22 companies (offering a total of 29 positions) have joined SkillBridge since IWD finalized a new partnership in November 2023. The new relationship made IWD a third-party administrator for SkillBridge, giving the agency authority to approve the civilian training programs that are required for service members to have a high probability of success in post-military employment.
“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for Iowa employers to tap into the tremendous pool of military talent that’s out there and fill their open jobs by bringing transitioning service members to Iowa,” Norton said. “Iowa needs workers, and these service members could be a tremendous benefit to their companies and communities, as well.”
For more information about how Iowans can get started in SkillBridge, visit IWD’s SkillBridge website.