Career Fair Held for Wisconsin National Guard Troops

Wednesday, May 11th, 2022 -- 10:00 AM

The Wisconsin National Guard hosted a career fair May 4 at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, along with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the Department of Workforce Development, and the Wisconsin Healthcare Association, for service members completing their tours of duty responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the troops have spent more than two years serving on military orders away from their civilian careers or educations. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wisconsin National Guard has been called upon several times to work in varying capacities supporting the state.

Wisconsin National Guard members administered more than 230,000 COVID-19 vaccines and more than 1.2 million COVID-19 tests since the pandemic began.

They also fulfilled a number of other roles including serving as certified nursing assistants at healthcare facilities, staffing a call center, staffing a warehouse that distributed PPE supplies, staffing self-isolation facilities, assisting county medical examiners, and more.

Wisconsin National Guards troops will soon transition back to their traditional part-time National Guard statuses and re-enter the civilian workforce or go back to school, and state agencies and employers partnered together to give them a helping hand in that transition.

Dozens of employers and educational institutions from around the state, including many from the healthcare industry gathered at the career fair in hopes of hiring Citizen Soldiers and Airmen who have served selflessly over the past two years and gained valuable skills and experience in the process. That’s especially true in the healthcare industry, where staffing shortages during the pandemic laid bare the need to recruit more people into the field.

With more than 160 Wisconsin National Guard troops serving in nursing assistant roles since January and receiving on-the-job training as well as formal certified nursing assistant training at Madison College and Bellin College in Green Bay, some troops may make the transition from other careers and remain in the healthcare field. More than 130 additional troops provided assistance at other state-operated healthcare facilities.

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