NEWPORT NEWS — Gov. Ralph Northam recognized two local companies that hire veterans.
The recognition was made during the recent 2018 Virginia Values Veterans luncheon in Richmond.
The CTR Group and Newport News Shipbuilding are two of the 16 companies that received recognition from the governor and are members of the Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program that provides free, certified training program for companies that recruit, hire and train veterans.
The training takes 2-3 months to complete and the certificate lasts for five years.
The Department of Veteran Services is in charge of the program.
The CTR Group won the Governor’s Award for the largest company to hire the most amount of veterans in 2017.
The staffing agency finds potential employees for its clientele in the public and private sectors and hired 296 veterans last year, according to the governor.
The Newport News Shipbuilding company, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, won the V3 Phoenix award for providing resources for veterans currently employed at the company and prospective veteran employees.
Companies do not have to commit to hiring a veteran in order to join the program and some businesses can apply for the V3 Employment Grant and receive up to $10,000 in grants, or $1,000 per eligible veteran hired at the company, according to the V3 program website.
In order to qualify for the grant, the companies must be a certified V3 business with fewer than 300 employees under “common control.”
In addition, the businesses must hire the veterans for full-time positions at the company within five years after the veteran has been discharged from active duty.
Veterans must also be employed with the business for at least one year.
It was not immediately clear if the 296 veterans hired at the CTR Group in 2017 are still working at the company.
