As part of a growing effort to help service members find post-active duty employment, the Marine Corps has partnered with the Manufacturing Skills Standard Council to pilot a program helping Marines in logistics and supply jobs to get certifications recognized in the civilian workplace.

In May, the MSSC sponsored 160 Certified Logistics Technician and Certified Logistics Associate exams for Marines in the military occupational specialties of supply administration and operation specialist, ground supply specialist, logistics/embarkation specialist and logistics/mobility chief. The pilot was developed in support of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” initiative, announced last year, to help service members get civilian credentials and licenses.

Marines took the two multiple-choice exams at four locations, including 30 Marines at Quantico, on May 8 and 10, 2013. Permanent test sites are to be established in the near future, with the program open to enlisted ranks corporal and higher.

For those who pass, the certificate can be a résumé-builder and is also worth semester hours toward a baccalaureate or associate degree in material handling, said Master Sgt. Stubbs, ground supply specialist in the Logistics Policy and Capabilities Branch of Installations and Logistics at Headquarters Marine Corps.

“I think this gives participating military members something to measure their knowledge against,” Stubbs, who participated in the pilot program, wrote in an email. “This can either validate their knowledge or give them an area to improve on in order to start a career in the logistics field if that is what they choose.”

Among the Marines who took the exams at Quantico was Master Gunnery Sgt. David Goodwin, supply policy action officer with the Logistics Policy and Capabilities Branch at Headquarters Marine Corps, who passed both exams.

“When I leave in 2015, I think this will be a way of translating my skills to something an employer not connected with [the Department of Defense] would recognize, so it may help me get a higher paying job with more responsibility than I could otherwise get,” Goodwin said in an email. “It opened my eyes to see that there are some things in civilian logistics that use different terminology but have many similar concerns, like border crossing inspections and terrorist attacks on the convoys.”

Forty percent of the Marines who took the tests passed both of them, the highest rate of any service, said Cassandra Coney, education and career specialist with Personal and Professional Development Branch of Marine and Family Programs Division and action officer for the pilot program.

Of the 30 Quantico Marines who took the exams, eight passed both, including five in the supply administration and operation specialist MOS.

Coney said many who took the tests, especially the more junior Marines, passed the CLA exam, which is more basic, but not the CLT. Those who did not pass both exams will get four distance learning courses free of charge and have the opportunity to retake the tests in September.  However, she said, a number of sergeants and corporals did pass both tests on the first try.

Goodwin noted that, in December of 2011, MSSC was accredited by the American National Standards Institute, the American member of the International Standards Organization, meaning global companies can use the standard worldwide.

He said MSSC is compiling a list of companies that recognize the certificates.

Coney said P&PD is now considering expanding the program with test sites at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.; Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.; Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com