<strong>YONGSAN GARRISON, Republic of Korea</strong> - Military spouses and family members will soon find it easier to get a Yongsan job. The Garrison is going to be part of a pilot program to help military spouses maintain government employment.
Ken Stark, U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan Civilian Personnel Advisory Center director said help is on the way.
"Military spouses who are immediately appointable to a competitive service position in the continental United States exercise their preference through registration in the Priority Placement Program," Stark said. "Until now, the program did not apply to overseas areas. However, we will soon be participating in a pilot program for registering our military spouses in the PPP."
Stark said this will result in an increase in the number of military family members getting hired here in Korea.
"Spouse preference applies when management wants to fill a position from a competitive list of applicants," he said. A spouse preference eligible applicant who is ranked among the 'best qualified' on a competitive list must be selected for the position."
If more than one spouse is determined to be best qualified among the candidates, management may select any one of them, he added.
As of Jan. 31, there are 205 appropriated fund family members and 119 non-appropriated fund family members employed at USAG-Yongsan.
"Within the last couple of weeks we have hired a military spouse a staff historian; a spouse as the USAG-Yongsan administrative officer, DeCA hired three family members and CPAC hired a military spouse equivalent to a GS-12," Stark said. "We have also hired a new family member in CPAC Room 501. CPAC now has a total of three family members."
"This is a significant promise in the Army Family Covenant," said USAG-Yongsan Commander Col. Dave Hall. "We are expanding education and employment opportunities for family members. We take that promise seriously."
Hall said the Garrison is aggressively pursing family member employment issues.
"We're developing a family employment seminar through our Army Community Service," he said. "This seminar will feature classes on how to interview, how to dress, what your opportunities are here at Yongsan, and we'll even have a 'job fair' flavor by inviting local prospective employees."
There is also an executive order recently signed allowing for noncompetitive appointments of certain military spouses.
"We're waiting for further guidance on how we will implement this," Stark said.
United States Forces-Korea is currently taking a survey on spouse/family member employment.
"We encourage our community members who are interested in employment on post to visit the <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx'sm=_2bunSDCetObAKer7IfLufVQ_3d_3d">Employment Survey</a> and fill it out," Hall said.
There are also additional employment resources at the <a href="http://yongsan.korea.army.mil/">Garrison</a> and <a href="http://imcom.korea.army.mil/imakoroweb/sites/local/employment.asp">Installation Management Command-Korea Region</a> Web sites.
Related Links:
Military Spouse Employment Site
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