The PMF and Recent Graduates programs have offered routes into competitive service jobs while the Internship program is designed to expose participants to the government as a possible future employer. Image: Daniel J. Macy/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe GAO has called for a better assessment of the Pathways Program, which is designed to be primary vehicle for recruiting and placing students and recent graduates into federal internship and fellowship positions.
Since Pathways was created in 2013 out of prior programs, the number of employees hired from it fell steadily from some 28,400 in that year to as low as 8,000 in 2021, before increasing to about 10,300 in 2023. “But OPM has not determined the information needed to identify factors that impact hiring trends or developed a plan to collect and assess that information, which would better position it to understand hiring fluctuations,” a report said.
The GAO noted that a late-February executive order began the process of shutting down one of the three prongs of the program, the Presidential Management Fellows program for those who have obtained advanced degrees—commonly in public administration or related management fields—within the prior two years. However, that order did not affect the other two prongs, the Internship program for current students and the Recent Graduates program for those who received a degree or certificate from a qualifying institution or completed a qualifying career or education program within the prior two years.
The PMF and Recent Graduates programs have offered routes into competitive service jobs while the Internship program is designed to expose participants to the government as a possible future employer.
GAO said that while OPM has “identified agency successes in recruitment and outreach that may be used to improve Pathways hiring,” it has not “established a lessons-learned process for Pathways . . . agencies continue to request additional information on making Pathways more effective. Without a process in place to collect and share lessons learned, OPM is missing an opportunity to leverage stakeholders’ knowledge to improve the government’s ability to recruit, hire, retain, and manage its early career talent pipeline.”
Similarly, it said that while OPM collects feedback from agencies, it does not do the same with all participants, leaving it “unable to determine whether participants are satisfied with the programs or faced challenges.”
OPM agreed with recommendations to address those issues.
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