When veteran Ron Davidson waves to the crowd atop Canada’s lone entry in the New Year’s Day Rose Parade in sunny Pasadena, Calif., he’ll be doing so on behalf of the country he served as a younger man — and a program that helps veterans transition to civilian life.
It’s the second year entering a float in the Rose Parade for Coding for Veterans, an organization that helps Canadian veterans transition into careers in cybersecurity and software development through online courses in partnership with the University of Ottawa.
Davidson, 61, a retired teacher and former bombardier with the 5th Field Battery of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery who now calls California home, said there wasn’t such specialized support when he left the service.
“A lot of them, when they leave, they don’t know what to do,” Davidson said of some of the men and women with whom he served. “They had training, but they didn’t know how to use it. They didn’t know how to connect it to the civilian world. It’s a lot better now.”
Coding for Veterans’ work is important to helping veterans transition to civilian life, Davidson says, especially in this high-tech era.
Coding for Veterans’ executive director Jeff Musson says the program launched five years ago with just five students. There are now more than 800 veterans enrolled.
“You end up going from serving on the battlefield to now serving in cyberspace,” Musson said, adding that the Rose Parade is “a great opportunity in which to tell our story.”
Musson says veterans make ideal IT candidates bringing with them attention to detail, leadership and a strong sense of teamwork.
The programs take an average of 12 months to complete and have landed veterans jobs with IBM, Amazon and a host of banks, defence contractors and multinational corporations.
They expanded the programs last year to U.S. veterans working in partnership with the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
Daniel Hruška, a former infantry soldier from Richmond, B.C., is currently in training.
Hruška was always interested in computers and had his own PC from a young age. He said that the skills used in the military — situational awareness and critical thinking among them — makes for an easy transition to cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity is a really good fit for veterans,” Hruška said. “I’m hoping that with all the certifications I’ve gotten through the Coding for Veterans program, I’ll be able to land an entry-level role in security.”
At the cavernous, Amazon-sized warehouse in Pasadena, hundreds of volunteers hurried about after the arrival of the thousands of roses that need to be attached to the float.
The Coding for Veterans entry, started in June, includes replicas of a F-35 fighter jet made out of seaweed, a Black Hawk helicopter made out of parsley, a giant computer screen and of course the Canadian flag prominent on its side.
“It really symbolizes a military veteran transitioning from deployment to employment,” Musson said.
Atop the float itself, Davidson will be there, proudly donning his Canadian Legion outfit.
“There’s two types of people in the world,” Davidson said matter-of-factly, “There’s Canadians and those that want to be Canadians.”
