An agency within the Transportation Department has awarded $1 million in grants to community colleges that will train military veterans to be commercial bus and truck drivers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Wednesday announced the awards, which will provide training for nearly 400 new students.
Nine community colleges in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia received the grants.
{mosads}Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said veterans already have the skills and experience to handle large vehicles.
“We can think of none more appropriate to safeguard our highways as commercial vehicle drivers than the thousands of veterans who have already proven they can safely handle large vehicles under extremely stressful circumstances,” he said.
The grants are meant to recruit, train and provide students with assistance for their job searches after graduating from college, the Transportation Department said.
Congress created the grant program in 2005 to expand the number of people with commercial driver’s licenses to reduce the number of vehicle crashes with large buses or trucks.