Army Spouse Employment Partnership Video. This video is an overview of the Army Spouse Employment Partnership mission and highlights its growing success and achievements.

Army Spouse Employment
Partnership Program

Representatives from several Fortune 500 companies will be leaving the boardroom to get back to basics when they visit Fort Jackson next week. In an effort to better understand the life of a Soldier, the corporate sponsors involved with the Army Spouse Employment Partnership will be touring basic training sites Tuesday and Wednesday. Fort Jackson will be only the second military installation to host ASEP members.

Photo by Barbara Martin, Employment Readiness Program manager Phoenix Powers, human resources assistant, right, explains her company’s opportunities for military spouses to two attendees at the Army Spouses Employment Partnership job fair, May 15 at the MG Robert B. Solomon Center. The job fair hosted 75 businesses, and more than 550 job seekers attended.

ASEP provides Army spouses the opportunity to establish and continue careers even though they move often. “Many spouses think the only way to have a career is through federal civil service, AAFES or NAF,” said Barbara Martin, Employment Readiness Program manager. “That’s not the case anymore. All of these companies are Fortune 500 companies. The Army went out and partnered with companies that are basically around all the military installations, to include some that are international.”

Martin said that in the past, military spouses, including her, felt they had to start over in a new type of job when their Soldier spouse received PCS orders. But with ASEP, they can now focus on their careers as well. “They (spouses) can have a career just like their Soldier spouse,” Martin said. “Spouses tell me they want a job they can carry with them. They say, ‘I am tired of starting and stopping, starting and stopping.”

John McLaurin, III, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Human Resources, said it is an important program. “This partnership marks a significant milestone for Army spouses,” McLaurin said in an e-mail response, “and for the promise by the Army to facilitate corporate efforts to access, develop, recruit and hire from among one of the most talented, diverse labor pools in America — Army spouses.”

Open to all military spouses, more than two dozen military and corporate partners will be involved in ASEP. The program has helped relieve some of the tensions experienced by military spouses looking for jobs. “With the partnership we have with these companies, when a spouse finds out they will be moving across the country, the HR person at their current location can call the corporate office to where they will be moving to see about possible openings,” Martin said.

Not only does the spouse benefit by being able to build a career, but the Army benefits when it comes to retaining Soldiers. “The more a spouse can feel like they have a career, and feel good about themselves and their ability to contribute to the total family income, the more likely the Soldier is to reenlist because everything in the home life is where it needs to be,” Martin said.

ASEP was launched in 2003 and now has a database of nearly 50,000 jobs. Spouses can view job opportunities and submit their resume at one of two Web sites, www.myarmylifetoo.com or www.msjs.org. Also, ASAP periodically conducts job fairs such as the one they held May 15 at the MG Robert B.Solomon Center. For more information on ASEP call Martin at 751-5432 or email- Michael.Glasch@conus.army.mil.