Changes would expand the time to convert Pathways Interns from 120 to 180 days, modify public notice requirements for vacancies, and clarify training and development requirements. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has proposed an overhaul of the Pathways Program, the government’s main internship and early career hiring and development program, based on feedback from agencies and its own analysis of the decade-old program.
A notice in the August 16 Federal Register says the changes would “facilitate a better applicant experience, to improve developmental opportunities for Pathways Program participants, and to streamline agencies’ ability to hire participants in the Pathways Programs, especially those who have successfully completed their Pathways requirements and are eligible for conversion to a term or permanent position in the competitive service.”
Pathways consists of three parts: the Presidential Management Fellows program, which primarily places those with advanced degrees into fellowship type positions with the opportunity to convert to competitive service status after one year of satisfactory performance; the Recent Graduates program for graduates of colleges, community colleges and vocational schools, with the potential for conversion to competitive status after one year from the end of a training period; and the Internship Program for high school and college students to familiarize them with government work with a potential route into federal employment.
OPM said that the proposed changes would: expand the time to convert Pathways Interns from 120 to 180 days; modify the public notice requirement for vacancy announcements for Pathways Interns and Recent Graduates; and clarify and streamline the training and development requirements.
Also: allow Recent Graduate and Presidential Management Fellows participants to be converted to term or permanent positions in any agency; allow the use of part-time work schedules for PMFs in certain situations; clarify information about the use of developmental assignments for PMFs; and expand eligibility for the Recent Graduates Program to include those who have completed certain career or technical education programs.
The notice further states in several places that Pathways is designed to be “a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the competitive hiring process.” The program was created in 2012 to replace a prior one called the Career Intern Program that federal employee unions had criticized as end-running standard competitive hiring processes.
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