Troops to Teachers - A Guide to Teaching Certification for Veterans

Written Originally for the Publisher Wiley’s Client: teaching-certification.com/

Jobs for veterans should not be difficult to come by. 

Military veterans and active duty military members who will eventually need a job as a veteran often find themselves underserved in this respect. 

Luckily, programs that provide jobs for veterans are becoming increasingly commonplace. 

One such program is “Troops to teachers,” which transitions military veterans into school teachers. 

Troops for teachers have enabled teaching jobs for veterans to not only exist but also as a path back into civilian life, which many veterans view as their central challenge after deployment. 

How does Troops to Teachers work? 

In 1993, Troops to Teachers –sometimes abbreviated to “TTT”-- was established by the Department of Defense and Education to aid military veterans –through counseling and referral services– to meet the educational and licensing requirements necessary for teaching at the K-12 level. 

Since the enactment of Troops to Teachers, some 100,000 veterans have successfully obtained careers as educators in public schools, charter schools, and schools via the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Likewise, 13,000 veterans have transitioned into school teachers through the Troops to Teachers program since 2013. 

The utility of this program goes beyond helping veterans as well. It also helps to fill educational gaps found in staff throughout the United States and can help to provide American youth with role models who are both experienced and disciplined.

Thus, the Troops to Teachers program provides a pathway to smoothen the transition from military life into civilian life by giving veterans a clear and respectable career path. 

Troops to Teachers Program Requirements 

To join the Troops to Teachers program, you must be a current or former member of the U.S. military and meet some of the following eligibility stipulations: 

•  A discharge from the military must be honorable, and good standing must be maintained. Applications must be submitted within three years of one’s active duty separation date. 

• If you are entitled to retirement, you must apply for the Troops to Teachers program within three years of the retirement date.  

• A bachelor’s degree is required for eligibility. 

To become eligible for a stipend of roughly $5,000-$10,000 in the Troops to Teachers program, applicants must check with program staff or a directory to see if the geographical location of their teaching position renders them eligible. 

Steps to Landing Teaching Jobs for Veterans

Teaching jobs for veterans does not only require being eligible for the Troops to Teachers program and then applying to it. 

Additional steps are required to successfully pass through this program, where “success” is defined by ending one’s job search and becoming an employed school teacher. 

1. Registering for the program:
   
   Ensure that you meet all military and educational requirements before submitting an application to the Troops to Teachers Program.
   

2. Meet with a guidance counselor:
   No matter how good your plan is, there is no guarantee it will succeed. Guidance counselors can help military veterans enact plans to optimize success at becoming a teacher and find potential plan B alternatives, just in case.
   
   This is a reason the Troops to Teachers program offers counselors to military vets –transitioning from military life to civilian life is complex, and help from professionals can be indispensable during such phases of life.
   

3. Pass exam and state-specific teaching requirements:
   
   Testing and state-specific stipulations are a necessary pre-condition to becoming licensed to teach in America.
   
   State-specific requirements for state-specific certification can be found on the Troops to Teachers website under the “routes to certification tab.”
   

4. Pass background checks:
   
   Teaching jobs are with children at the K-12 level, so teachers are required to undergo background checks and fingerprint and medical screenings to begin their careers.
   

5. Fulfill Necessary Student Teaching Hours:
   
   Hours required for teacher certification can be completed during training under the Troops to Teachers program or through internships to which the program may refer you.

Top Attributes for Troops to Teachers Enrollees 

Not everyone is destined to be a teacher. But so many in the military that many active duty military officers are content with being a teacher in the military. 

What makes military teachers –or their aspiring counterparts– stand out in the Troops to Teachers program?

Leadership

According to Navy Seal vet Jocko Willink, the most critical leadership skill is “extreme ownership.” 

If you are the type of individual who takes great personal accountability for one’s actions and how they affect one’s surroundings, you are likely to succeed in the Troops to Teachers program. 

Organization 

Teachers must keep track of dozens of students, their assignments, and their progress as individuals and as classes. 

This requires that teachers be capable of impeccable organization skills –the ability to plan for success, to find a measure for it, and then measure it in real-time.

Adaptability 

Teaching is not an easy job. School teachers in America are notoriously underpaid and overworked.

Typically, this “overworked” component consists at least partially of an inability to adapt to the rapidly occurring changes that transpire in their students.

School teachers must expect the unexpected, and the only way to do so without incurring any personal damage is by being highly adaptable person. 

Should veterans and active duty military officers become teachers? 

Teachers possess powerful unions which have conferred them special rights and benefits in their place of work. Moreover, these rights and benefits are not limited to full summers off either!

And teachers from the Troops to Teachers programs have unique benefits not available to teachers from outside the military –such as the potential for improved salaries. 

Especially for workers coming out of the military, who often have trouble reintegrating themselves back into a citizen’s social existence, the Troops to Teachers program offers military veterans a path forward to improve the youth of the nation in meaningful ways as their next career. 

If you are interested in the Troops to Teachers program or other veteran job placement and assistance programs, click here to learn more.