Today, Pete Reed and I had the honor of representing Salesforce at the White House where First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden celebrated the fifth anniversary of their Joining Forces initiative, which was established to ensure that service members, veterans and their families have the tools they need to succeed in the civilian world. Since its launch in 2011, more than 1.2 million veterans and military spouses have been hired or trained as a result of the program.

In October 2014, Salesforce kicked off a similar initiative called VetForce. VetForce’s mission is to impact the lives of veterans by providing them with business skills and technology training to build fulfilling careers in the Salesforce ecosystem, which IDC estimates will create 1 million direct jobs and 1.5 million indirect jobs by 2018. Ultimately, our goal is twofold—to connect veterans and military spouses to job opportunities, and create a more diverse pool of talent for employers.

We were proud to join more than 50 technology companies that pledged to collectively train and hire 60,000 and more than 110,00 veterans and military spouses, respectively, by 2021 as a part of the Joining Forces new anniversary pledge. Salesforce is reinforcing our commitment to veterans by pledging to provide free Salesforce training to 35,000 veterans, military spouses and transitioning service members over the next five years through the VetForce program.

The thousands of veterans transitioning from the military each month are some of the hardest working, most dedicated individuals in our country. They deserve access to the best available opportunities in the civilian world. Together with the White House, veteran service organizations (VSOs) and our customers and partners, we are confident we can provide our veterans and military spouses with the same opportunities they have given us through their service.

VetForce – Driving Change, Transforming Lives

VetForce’s mission is to impact the lives of veterans and military spouses by helping them build fulfilling civilian careers. The program provides a structured self-paced learning journey where veterans and their spouses receive free online and in-person Salesforce training, collaborate with a community of veterans, achieve Salesforce certification and get connected to employment opportunities in our ecosystem of thousands of Salesforce customers and partners.

Samuel Allen is a former U.S. Marine and VP, Mergers & Acquisitions and Head of Integration at Salesforce