American College to Start Veterans Affairs Center

By staff Writer

May 31, 2011 at 08:00 PM

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A financial services school is setting up a program that will train soldiers who are returning to civilian life to enter the insurance industry.

Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Horsham, Pa., is giving the American College $2.5 million over 5 years to establish the Center for Veterans Affairs.

The center will help soldiers take American College courses while they are serving in any country, in any capacity, the college says. The first soldier students could get their designations in about 2 years.

The college, based in Bryn Mawr, Pa., is known for running the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) professional designation programs.

U.S. veterans now have an unemployment rate of about 15%, compared with a national unemployment rate of 9% for all U.S. workers, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The Penn Mutual grant will help the college reach out to active-duty service members, reservists and veterans, according to Allen McLellan, an associate dean at the college and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

The returning soldiers' "hard work, dedication, focus, and ability to succeed in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds is exactly what the financial services industry needs during these challenging economic times," McLellan says in a statement about the new program.

- Allison Bell