MEMPHIS, Tenn. — At the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) Summit here last week, attendees were introduced to a new nonprofit initiative aimed at helping veterans find jobs in the school bus industry.

Warriors in the Workplace was conceived by members of the National School Transportation Association and others in the industry. The initiative is geared specifically toward men and women of the U.S. military to offer them employment opportunities based on skills they acquired and honed throughout their military careers.

“Growing up in a military family and having served for seven years myself, I wanted to use my experience helping to honor fallen heroes to help those who were returning from service, only to face staggering unemployment rates,” said John Birmingham, president and executive director of Warriors in the Workplace. “Our goal with this program is to help put our valuable veterans back to work in the civilian sector. Those who hire our veterans are getting employees with world-class training, and they are able to make use of some very lucrative tax benefits as well. This can be a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

Warriors in the Workplace puts employers in contact with qualified veterans for positions such as mechanics, school bus drivers and routing specialists, and in such areas as manufacturing, management, purchasing, communications, and safety and training. Sponsors will be able to list their open positions on www.warriorsintheworkplace.org, and they will have their contribution recognized at trade shows and hiring events that the organization attends.

Birmingham told SBF at the NAPT trade show that veterans can look for available jobs on the organization’s website through an interactive map of the U.S. that is searchable by ZIP code, and they can also create and post an online resume to add to an employer searchable database.

He also noted that he has received a lot of support in launching his organization and its initiative.

“The Trans Group and Trans Tech Bus are sponsoring the Warriors in the Workplace program,” he said. “Thomas Built Buses gave us space in their booth [at the NAPT trade show] for a truck with our logos on it, and [Thomas Built President and CEO] Kelley Platt was on stage with me during the general session and spoke when they gave us some time to make a formal announcement. The NAPT gave us the second booth space where we had another truck.”

For more information about Warriors in the Workplace, contact Birmingham at (207) 694-1808 or jbirmingham@warriorsintheworkplace.org.