Toward the end of his mil­i­tary career, Stan­ley Osin­s­ki was sta­tioned in Fort Irwin, Cal­i­for­nia, where he worked behind a desk as a duty offi­cer, report­ing to the com­mand­ing offi­cer. Like so many oth­er mil­i­tary per­son­nel, Osin­s­ki became famil­iar with how to use SAP sys­tems as he com­plet­ed main­te­nance tasks. 

As he con­sid­ered his impend­ing retire­ment from the mil­i­tary and the cor­re­spond­ing tran­si­tion to a civil­ian role, Osin­s­ki learned from one of his fel­low ser­vice mem­bers about SAP for Vet­er­ans, a pro­gram ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing U.S. mil­i­tary vet­er­ans with work­force fun­da­men­tals and free cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in SAP products. 

Inter­est­ed in the oppor­tu­ni­ty and the doors he believed it could open, Osin­s­ki applied along with his col­league, trans­fer­ring to Fort Bliss, Texas, and jump­ing in head­first. Through the pro­gram, he received his SAP Cer­ti­fied Asso­ci­at­ed Busi­ness Process Inte­gra­tion with SAP S/4HANA 2020 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. Upon grad­u­a­tion, Osin­s­ki lever­aged his mil­i­tary expe­ri­ences and the exper­tise he gained from SAP for Vet­er­ans to begin a new career as a Bor­der­land Main­te­nance Man­ag­er at Veo­lia North America. 

For near­ly a decade, SAP Vet­er­ans to Work has helped vet­er­ans like Osin­s­ki to tran­si­tion their mil­i­tary and SAP expe­ri­ences into civil­ian IT careers. A col­lab­o­ra­tion between St. Michael’s Learn­ing Acad­e­my (SMLA) and SAP, the pro­gram pro­vides its stu­dents with 320 hours of cur­ricu­lum and hands-on learn­ing, or the equiv­a­lent of about an 18-month edu­ca­tion. The pro­gram fits nice­ly with SMLA’s focus. The pri­vate post-sec­ondary and voca­tion­al school aims at help­ing stu­dents retool their expe­ri­ences for new careers and re-entry into the work­force. Draw­ing from the SAP Uni­ver­si­ty Alliance cur­ricu­lum, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions donat­ed by SAP, and expert train­ing pro­fes­sion­als, SAP Vet­er­ans to Work equips its stu­dents with the tools, expe­ri­ence, and exper­tise crit­i­cal for IT professionals. 

Accord­ing to Chris­tine Aboud, own­er and pres­i­dent of SMLA, SAP Vet­er­ans to Work is an impor­tant way that both insti­tu­tions can active­ly sup­port mil­i­tary per­son­nel and thank them for their service. 

“SAP and SMLA both rec­og­nize the enor­mous con­tri­bu­tions that America’s finest have made to our nation,” Aboud said. ​“Our goal is to help vet­er­ans make their way back into civil­ian life with a gain­ful career.” 

SAP Vet­er­ans to Work traces its ori­gins back to 2014 when the Depart­ment of Defense sought pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships with com­pa­nies aimed at tran­si­tion­ing active-duty ser­vice mem­bers into civil­ian careers. The sub­se­quent­ly formed Skill­Bridge pro­gram con­nect­ed mil­i­tary per­son­nel with pro­fes­sion­al career oppor­tu­ni­ties. SMLA was a test pilot for Skill­Bridge and, in the decade since it was found­ed, has, pre­pared approx­i­mate­ly 900 vet­er­ans for careers in the SAP ecosystem. 

“SAP salutes the courage and ded­i­ca­tion of Amer­i­ca’s mil­i­tary per­son­nel. Our Vet­er­ans to Work pro­gram is our way of giv­ing back, aid­ing our heroes in seam­less­ly tran­si­tion­ing back to civil­ian roles,” said Michael May, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor for the South Mar­ket Unit and Exec­u­tive Spon­sor for the SAP Vet­er­ans to Work Program. 

A New Kind of Train­ing

SAP Vet­er­ans to Work meets its stu­dents where they are. A hybrid learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty, the pro­gram takes place across 12 weeks and typ­i­cal­ly attracts active ser­vice mem­bers. Each class, com­prised of 18 to 25 stu­dents, must com­plete a rig­or­ous qual­i­fi­ca­tion and screen­ing process before gain­ing admis­sion. Aboud esti­mates that her team typ­i­cal­ly inter­views between 50 to 80 vet­er­ans for each class, deter­min­ing whether they have the appro­pri­ate qual­i­fi­ca­tions, pre­req­ui­site expe­ri­ence, and career ambi­tions to get val­ue out of the program. 

From there, stu­dents begin the course, which is sep­a­rat­ed into three dis­tinct pil­lars of learning. 

First, stu­dents receive a ground­ing in SAP and IT the­o­ry. In the morn­ing, they are taught by instruc­tors — often SMLA alums — who work in acad­e­mia or with SAP Uni­ver­si­ty Alliances. 

In the after­noon, stu­dents get trained on SAP case stud­ies and gain hands-on expe­ri­ence with sys­tems such as SAP S/4HANA. Both the mil­i­tary and the Depart­ment of Defense use SAP prod­ucts in var­i­ous capac­i­ties, includ­ing pro­cure­ment and asset main­te­nance, and so many stu­dents have pre-exist­ing expe­ri­ence using SAPs. After­noon ses­sions then focus on demon­strat­ing how SAP solu­tions can be best lever­aged in spe­cif­ic busi­ness contexts. 

The third pil­lar of SAP Vet­er­ans to Work involves help­ing stu­dents build their resumes and pre­pare for job inter­views. Aboud not­ed that, while the program’s stu­dents most­ly have exten­sive IT back­grounds, they some­times need assis­tance apply­ing IT skills to the world of busi­ness. Every Fri­day, stu­dents can receive free pro­fes­sion­al assis­tance while apply­ing for jobs, par­tic­i­pate in mock inter­view ses­sions, hear from VIP guests, learn to lever­age career tools, and gain insights on emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies (such as arti­fi­cial intelligence). 

“We’re not just pro­vid­ing key train­ing for crit­i­cal roles in SAP,” Aboud said. ​“We also trans­late the skills and train­ing vet­er­ans have received in the mil­i­tary, to ensure they under­stand how to defend that expe­ri­ence in inter­views. We are build­ing off their qual­i­fi­ca­tions to help them suc­cess­ful­ly move into jobs with­in cor­po­rate America.” 

Proven Results

SMLA has an exem­plary track record, includ­ing a 92% cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pass rate and an 85% stu­dent place­ment rate. Part of this suc­cess, Aboud believes, is owed to the sense of com­mu­ni­ty and cama­raderie the pro­gram instills in students. 

Phillip Rhodes has been work­ing with SAP ERP plat­forms since 2016. After a sev­en-year mil­i­tary career that saw him sta­tioned in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and all over Europe, Rhodes decid­ed to lever­age his SAP expe­ri­ence and apply for the SAP Vet­er­ans to Work pro­gram. Grad­u­at­ing last year after get­ting SAP-cer­ti­fied in busi­ness process inte­gra­tion with SAP S/4HANA, Rhodes has since remained at SMLA as an SAP S/4HANA Instructor. 

“It’s one of the most rig­or­ous edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams I ever heard of, known, and expe­ri­enced,” he recent­ly told ASUG.

Rhodes not­ed that while many in the mil­i­tary use SAP prod­ucts and ERP plat­forms reg­u­lar­ly, tran­si­tion­ing from mil­i­tary roles into pro­fes­sion­al IT posi­tions isn’t always easy. 

“The words, the ver­biage, and the amount of infor­ma­tion com­ing at you is a chal­leng­ing aspect,” he said. 

The SAP Vet­er­ans to Work pro­gram, while inten­sive, helped Rhodes pair his expe­ri­ence with the knowl­edge and exper­tise nec­es­sary to begin a new career as an IT professional. 

Employ­er Ben­e­fits

Of course, the SAP Vet­er­ans to Work pro­gram does not sole­ly ben­e­fit its grad­u­ates. Mil­i­tary vet­er­ans pos­sess a par­tic­u­lar set of skills that’s often extreme­ly desir­able to com­pa­nies look­ing for poten­tial addi­tions to their IT organizations. 

“Vet­er­ans adapt very well to change,” Aboud said. ​“Most of them have expe­ri­ence in an ever-chang­ing envi­ron­ment and they excel at under­go­ing con­stant devel­op­ment and training.” 

In addi­tion, grad­u­ates of SAP Vet­er­ans to Work com­plete a rig­or­ous screen­ing process before being admit­ted, which ensures orga­ni­za­tions that recruit its grad­u­ates receive a high return on their invest­ment. SMLA’s part­ner­ships with both SAP and the SAP Uni­ver­si­ty Alliances mean that its stu­dents have access to up-to-date cur­ricu­lum and active, expe­ri­enced instruc­tors. One of the most suc­cess­ful SAP train­ing pro­grams, SMLA has guid­ed 88% of its stu­dents to suc­cess­ful­ly obtain their SAP ERP Cer­ti­fied Asso­ciate TS410 HANA exam – com­pared to the 65% nation­al average. 

“This is such a unique pro­gram,” Aboud said. ​“Start­ing an IT career is dif­fi­cult for any­body. With SAP Vet­er­ans to Work, we sup­ple­ment our stu­dents’ skills and expe­ri­ences so they can suc­cess­ful­ly tran­si­tion into a career in the SAP ecosys­tem. It’s a great way to help vet­er­ans jump­start a new chap­ter — and bring val­ue to an organization.” 

Jim Licht­en­wal­ter and Erin Crain con­tributed to this article.