The number of employees entering federal service through the Federal Career Intern Program has increased from 400 in 2001 to more than 7,000 in 2004, and offers a promising solution to responding to the 500,000 employees that are expected to retire by 2013, according to a new report from the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Under the program, individuals are hired for 2-year internships in the excepted service to provide agencies with a steady stream of qualified applicants from inside or outside of government for permanent appointments, to which they may be converted upon completing the program and meeting all qualifications, suitability and performance requirements.
The program has few eligibility and procedural requirements, which automatically gives it more flexibility than the competitive hiring process – though agencies are still required to comply with merit system principles, veteran’s preference and equal employment opportunities.
Data contained in the report shows that less than a third of competitive service hiring is achieved through competitive examination, and that the number of new hires through side-door entrances is on the rise, especially when taking into consideration hiring into the excepted service.
Career interns and their supervisors have positive views of the program, but agencies have “relied on limited tools to recruit applicants to the program, used weak pre-hire assessment tools and failed to use the internship as a trial period to correct for weak assessment tools, and some did not provide training and development activities to career interns as required,” the board said.
The Board found that agencies rely too narrowly on campus visits and career fairs to attract applicants, that assessment tools are often undiscerning, and the trial period is underemphasized.
FCIP regulations require formal training and development activities, yet some agencies have provided little or no training at all, the report said.
