Newswise — AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Executive Education program is partnering with the VETTED Foundation, a transition program that identifies and prepares top military talent for industry placement or entrepreneurship. VETTED was created by a current Full-Time Texas MBA student and active duty military officer, Michael Sarraille.

“Seventy percent of career military veterans struggle to find work in the private sector and over 70 percent of hiring managers admit having a hard time making business sense of military experience,” Sarraille said.

The VETTED Foundation’s Veteran Accelerated Management Program combines five months of distance learning in business fundamentals and two months of comprehensive residential graduate-level business instruction in commercialization, innovation and entrepreneurship at UT Austin or Texas A&M University.

“We’ve developed a program that is both cost efficient and time efficient for veterans,” Sarraille said. “A lot of these guys just retired and are in their mid-40s with a family. They don’t have the option of a full-time MBA and are eager to transition into the private sector.”

Veterans will not only be given the business acumen they need to succeed in the corporate world but they’ll also be provided with world-class career services from the McCombs School of Business, including resume development, mock interviews and networking techniques. And, unlike other transition programs, the Veteran Accelerated Management Program does not end until participants have been successfully placed with an employer.

“The most important part is that this entire process ends in industry placement that is free of cost to veterans,” Sarraille said. “We are creating a talent pool of proven military leaders armed with a foundation in business.”

VETTED aims to provide a solid, common group for veterans and future employers by reframing military experience. The foundation is the first state model, and it hopes to serve as the launch pad for successful veteran transitions nationwide.

The organization is currently fundraising, with the program’s first cohort expected to start in the fall of 2017. The Veteran Accelerated Management Program supports up to 50 veterans per cohort.

Sarraille plans to work full-time with the VETTED Foundation upon his retirement from the military in the spring of 2018 after 20 years of service. He will graduate from the McCombs School with his MBA in the fall of 2017.

Volunteers, donors and interested corporate partners can contact the foundation through its website.

For more information, contact: Samantha Harris, Red McCombs School of Business, [email protected] or 512-471-6746.