The Hinesville Career Center with the Department of Labor recently received the 2009 Veterans Group Award. The International Association of Workplace Professionals presents the annual award to entities that provide outstanding career counseling services to veterans.
“It’s the seventh time we’ve won at the state level and the third time at the national level,” said career center representative P.J. Schneider.
Schneider nominated the center for the award. He was the 2009-10 veteran’s chair for the Georgia chapter of the IAWP and is now the 2010-11 president-elect of the Georgia chapter.  
 “We have 53 career centers in the state of Georgia alone that were eligible to nominate their career centers,” Schneider said.
He said the local career center works with “all veterans and other eligible individuals such as spouses of certain veterans.”
Schneider said career center personnel help veterans find gainful employment and assists them in obtaining “benefits to which they are entitled.”
“Last year, we facilitated 43 transition assistance workshops for 1,500 separating service members,” he said. The center engages in outreach in the community as well, Schneider added.
Veterans are marketable in the job market because of “their skills, their leadership, their discipline and their work ethics,” he said.
IAWP, founded in 1913, is a professional association for members who work in public and private workforce development programs, according to www.iawponline.org.