Making the transition from a military to civilian career is not always easy for veterans.

To help bridge that gap, the state is hosting a series of free virtual job fairs.

They give veterans the opportunity to meet potential employers and explore career opportunities without ever leaving home.

We started the virtual job fair in April of 2025.

We have a focus on veterans, but we don't want to limit it to just veterans.

We dedicate the first hour to veterans and then we open it up to the Commonwealth at large.

The emphasis on veterans is to give them an extra resource they might not otherwise have.

As I travel the state and I speak to employers and business owners, I keep hearing the same thing over and over, which is what they're looking for in their ideal employees.

And what they're describing are all of the skills and characteristics of people who have served in the military.

Right?

They want someone who can be punctual, someone who is disciplined, someone who is a good team player.

And all of those things are inherent to someone who has served in, in the military and who is, you know, giving up their time to keep us all safe.

And so those are the things that we keep hearing about.

And so we want to make sure that those folks are the ones that, you know, have an opportunity to, to fill these jobs.

As a former vet myself, leaving the Air Force, I think the biggest struggle I had was just finding a way to network again in the military.

You build out a network just because it's, you know, the Brotherhood sisterhood of being in the military.

Once you get out, you kind of lose some of that.

You might keep your connections, but I think this is a great way for them to connect with employers and other job seekers.

When you're looking for an employment and you're leaving a military base, you're kind of like lost.

It's almost like graduating college and you're just wondering, where do I go?

Where there employers?

More jobs do you get?

And we're just trying to make it very easy for the employers to reach the job seekers and for the military personnel to reach the employers.

Also to find a job.

All job seekers throughout the state can log on with their computer remotely from anywhere within the state and participate.

We've had over 80 employers registered for the job fairs, offer over 1000 jobs, covering multiple signature industries for the state itself.

Each month there is going to be a focus on on certain sectors of, of the economy.

That's not to say that those will be the only jobs that are promoted, but there's going to be a monthly focus in areas that, that we need some folks, to step up and work in.

But you'll see everything from education to advanced manufacturing to bourbon to EV.

Right.

And that's a wide array of jobs, opportunities for different folks.

And the employers are so excited about this because this gives them, an opportunity to really meet Kentuckians where they are to promote their own business and recruit some folks that they know have proven themselves to be, you know, tested and tough as veterans are.

But also, I know that there's so many, job seekers who, you know, may not know where to look or where to go.

And so this virtual job fair creates that opportunity, but it also creates the flexibil among the employers participating in the virtual job fairs, the Secretariat center and adoption center for off track thoroughbreds in Lexington.

The executive director says the center is focused on giving former race horses and former military members the opportunity at a second, successful career.

Secretariat center has been around for 21 years.

Located here at the Kentucky Horse Park, and the mission of the center is to take thoroughbreds who no longer race off track.

Thoroughbreds and rehome them, school them, retrain them, and give them a chance at a second career as they spend the rest of their, their useful day.

I'm a veteran myself.

I'm a retired Navy commander with 20 years Vietnam veteran, and, my son's in the military, so.

Heart's in the right place for veterans.

And I used to be the, state director of veterans programs for DVA.

So one of the things we focused on was, of course, veteran employment and making sure that every veteran that could has a good job, that they can go to other.

The annual payrolls in the equine business here is $325 million, which represents obviously a lot of jobs.

And, it's about a $6 billion industry here in the state.

So, so from a workforce, initiative type of thing, and getting veterans into these jobs, is, is important to the industry so that we can continue to, you know, enjoy the, the industry that we have here in Kentucky related to equine.

So the virtual job fairs are great because I go to Fort Campbell in Fort Knox monthly in person and talk to the transition assistance classes so that I can get face to face with new veteran, new service members about to become new veterans.

So that's a that's the face to face piece.

And there's about 400 new veterans created every month at Fort Campbell right here in Kentucky, about 5000 a year.

Actually, it's a pretty large workforce.

It's available, to, to go to different things.

So the virtual side, gives me a very broad beyond Kentucky reach to where I can touch a lot of people that that are either come back to the state or are in parts of the state and not necessarily in the central part in the bluegrass area, but want to get into the horse, business, because, again, we have a quarter of a million veterans in the state, and they are spread out all over, Kentucky's 120 counties.

So the virtual piece gives me that reach, that I don't have.

Just when I do my face to face type stuff, I look at, all of the people that sign up to come on the site to see, to kind of prescreen them, to see who, who would be, you know, who would be a good match, who would who be likely, to fit in.

I'm looking of course, my preference would be to have that transitioning service member who's looking for, you know, employment right after the service and to get into a career field like the equine business.

So and, for the people that are on the the virtual job fair, I get some of those, obviously, because they're paying attention to that, because they're transitioning, but also the people that are that are career transitioning, like, the veteran, I just graduated, he spent 15 years at IBM.

And so he was looking to transition into a totally different career, kind of harking back to his father and grandfather, who were in the racing business.

So the virtual career fair gives us an opportunity to reach all those kinds of people that are at different stages of maybe transitioning to a new job or a new career field.

Of the virtual thing gives them a chance to get on, on that site, talk to me or one of my folks and actually have a conversation about our program.

And gets a little more familiar, a little more comfortable to see if they'd like to learn more about, the equine industry and, and having an introductory opportunity as well.

Here are a few more details about the virtual job fairs.

They'll take place the third Wednesday of each month.

Throughout the rest of the year, the job fairs are free and open to all, but you must register in advance.

The first hour is specifically for veterans and military families, with the remaining time open to all job seekers to register or to find out more about the virtual job fairs, go online to veterans dot K-Y dot gov.