The Department of Veterans Affairs has approved applications for all 45,000 slots available for fiscal 2012 under its Veterans Retraining Assistance Program and is in the process of approving applications for a total of 54,000 slots available for 2013.
The training and education program was designed for unemployed veterans looking to upgrade their skills and it seeks to train a total of 99,000 veterans over the next two years in more than 200 high demand job skills.
VRAP, a joint program of the VA and the Labor Department, allows qualifying veterans (generally, 35 to 50 years old and ineligible for other VA education benefits) 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.