Service members participating in the SkillBridge program, a career skills program designed to facilitate their transition to civilian life, must be aware of specific ethical guidelines regarding gifts. Generally, accepting gifts from SkillBridge industry partners is not permitted. However, there are exceptions concerning subsistence, lodging, and travel costs.
SkillBridge providers have the discretion to subsidize or reimburse subsistence, lodging, and travel costs from a service member’s home station to the program location. This is permissible if the subsidy or reimbursement is offered uniformly to all training participants, regardless of their military affiliation. Furthermore, this policy must be explicitly and clearly stated by the SkillBridge provider in their SkillBridge application.
For example, consider a service member undertaking a SkillBridge internship with Company X while on permissive TDY. This internship program also includes civilians. If Company X decides to cover airfare and accommodation/meal expenses for all interns, including the service member, then the service member is allowed to accept this offer. The crucial factor is that the benefit extends to all participants, not just service members.
Conversely, consider a scenario where a service member, nearing the end of their SkillBridge internship, is invited for an interview at Company X’s headquarters in another state. Company X offers to pay for the service member’s travel expenses for this interview. However, if civilian interns participating in the same SkillBridge program are not offered travel expense coverage for interview invitations, then the service member may NOT accept the travel expenses from Company X for the interview. This is because the interview travel benefit is not being offered to all participants equally.
Service members and their Chain of Command are strongly encouraged to discuss the specifics of any gift or benefit offers with their servicing Legal Office before acceptance. Additional details can be found in the SkillBridge Program Participant Ethics Brief available in the Resources.
