There have been a lot of different efforts over the last several decades to support and give assistance to Veterans with going to school. The Veterans GI Bill was revamped in the 1980s to become the Montgomery GI Bill system. It provides money for education, but also there are funding options for people that are interested in becoming small business owners, or who have small businesses and are looking to expand their business. Both the Department of Defense and the US Congress has supported different efforts to give GI bill funding for single person businesses and other small businesses.
President George Bush signed legislation in February 2008 to support a series of additional funding options, to further support the use of Government GI funds for small business and other business related For many years the Montgomery GI bill was mainly used to attend college or university, and the opportunities to use your MGIB to get training as a small business owner or businessperson was not widely known, nor widely used. If you already own a small business this does not necessarily disqualify you from using your MGIB funds in this manner. If you were wise and participated in the Montgomery GI Active Duty Buy Up Program, you could even possibly qualify for an additional $5,400 dollars of funding to use in this manner. Entrepreneur training and small business training gives Veterans the chance to take classes or enroll in courses that are offered across the nation. These type of courses are still rather new, and the courses themselves have to be approved on a individual case by case business, but it is most definitely worth inquiring about if you are a small business owner or if you have experience in small business. In recent years, both Congress and the DoD have worked together to expand the opportunities to use your MGIB funds to learn about and become trained as a small business Entrepreneur. Sometimes this type of training that is non traditional is ideal for the returning Veteran to use the MGIB funding. You can utilize your MGIB funds for apprenticeship and business classes, ones that qualify and are approved by the Veterans administration, for up to the 36 – month limit.
The Department of Defense to increase opportunities to use MGIB funding for small business type training. Some of the things you may be able to use your MGIB funds for include: enroll in a business class, take a business opportunities class, or join a how to start your own business program.
