The Military Spouse Employment Partnership is a targeted recruitment and employment initiative, creating employment connections that provide companies with direct access to military spouses seeking career opportunities, and spouses with direct access to employers who are actively recruiting. Learn about the current membership and recent efforts to recruit more employer partners.

The Defense Department launched a 12-week paid fellowship program to expand employment opportunities for eligible military spouses. Military spouses accepted into the program will gain placement with host companies that match their location and work experience, among other factors. Spouses will receive in-person or professional training and mentoring. At the end of the fellowship, host companies may invite spouses to join their organization as a direct hire. Learn more about the pilot program.

The Department is taking several actions to support licensure portability and compacts so that military spouses have an easier time putting their skills to work. There are 14 different occupational licensure compacts currently being considered by states for approval. Learn more about military spouse licensure initiatives and see the status of different efforts.

We know that military families are having trouble finding affordable, licensed child care that meets their needs. In many cases, military family child care providers must have state licensing or registration in addition to military requirements. By exempting providers already certified through the military, states enhance the economic status of both the providers and families. Learn more about child care provider licensure exemption best practices, read discussion points and see the state legislation status tracker.

The Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood fee assistance program, MCCYN-PLUS, has expanded and is now available in eight locations. The DOD created MCCYN-PLUS to bridge the gap in locations where accredited care is unavailable. This initiative utilizes the states’ Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, or QRIS, as an indicator of provider quality in lieu of national accreditation, broadening the pool of providers eligible to receive fee assistance on behalf of military families. Learn more about efforts to make affordable, convenient child care more broadly available for military families.

The Child Care in Your Home pilot program provides fee assistance to service members who utilize in-home child care providers and covers full-time care for a minimum of 30 hours to a maximum of 60 hours of child care weekly. Care is not limited to Monday through Friday or time of day. This allows in-home providers, such as nannies, to be used for rotating shifts and weekend care to meet the nontraditional schedules of military families.

Furthering its commitment to provide additional child care options to meet the needs of service members and military families, the DOD has expanded Year 2 of the Child Care in Your Home fee assistance program into additional markets with long waitlists and high demand in order to grant fee assistance for families that have determined that full-time child care in their home is the best solution to meet their needs. See the list of newly eligible areas.