A&FRC offers spouse employment assistance

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Delia Marchick
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  In the Air Force, the employment assistance program offered by the Airman and Family Readiness Center is often tied to active duty members who are transitioning out of the military, but it is also open to spouses. Spouses can choose from programs such as Boots to Business, career technical training, and civilian or federal resume writing courses.

“Spouses can attend the federal resume writing and the Boots to Business class,” said Dave Burger, 341st Force Support Squadron A&FRC transition program manager. “While these classes are offered to Airmen going through the transition assistance program spouses can also sign up and attend.”

Boots to Business is a course on entrepreneurship available for spouses interested in starting their own business. Resume courses teach both civilian and federal resume writing styles.

“Federal resumes have to be written differently to get a referral to the hiring authority, said Carmen Kubiak, 341st FSS A&FRC employment program manager. “The center has four certified coaches that teach those specific techniques.”

In addition to the resume classes the center provides one-on-one interview preparation, training and practice sessions.
Kubiak and Burger work together to make the job hunt easier on spouses.

One of their recent projects was the military spouse priority placement for spouses eligible for federal jobs.

“We are always looking ahead into the next few years for transferrable opportunities for spouses so when they PCS they don’t have to switch jobs or find new careers,” said Kubiak.

One of the newest programs the A&FRC and the Air Force Aid Society made available to spouses is the certified nursing assistant program.
Burger and Kubiak assisted with the proposal of the CNA program in response to an expressed interest here.

The A&FRC posts job opportunities for spouses that prefer to work from home. The job openings are posted on an employment board located at the education building.

“I receive notices and phone calls with stay-at-home job opportunities weekly but I need to know who is interested so I can send the information out,” said Kubiak. “If you are interested please call us and if we cannot help you directly we are going to get you the right resource or point you in the right direction."

The A&FRC is here to help anyone that is eligible with their job search and employment goals.

Those eligible include active duty, guard, reserve, and retired military members and their families, as well as DoD civilians and their families.

“We have so many resources and so much information that I don’t think enough people know about and we have one purpose, to take care of the military family,” added Kubiak.

Kubiak and Burger are co-located at the education office and encourage spouses to stop by or give them a call.

“We do whatever we can do to help and when they get a job that means we have done our job,” said Burger.

The employment and transition center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. but will also work with individual schedules as needed. For more information, contact the employment program manager at 731-3260.