Hiring for Most Federal IT Positions to Be Skills-Based Within a Year

It’s being called a “major milestone” in the federal government’s effort to transition to skills-based hiring.

The Biden Administration announced that nearly 100,000 federal IT jobs in the Information Technology Management series (2210 series) will be transferred to skills-based hiring principles and practices by the summer of 2025.

That accounts for most federal IT positions, which typically require a rigorous college-degree in fields like computer science, engineering, and statistics.

But skills-based hiring removes the four-year college degree requirement where appropriate, and instead adds apprenticeships, scholarships, and training as qualifications.

The news was announced at a recent White House event on cybersecurity hiring, featuring members of the public and private sector. There are more than 500,000 cybersecurity positions open around the country.

“We know that getting the best talent requires workers to be hired based on the skills they possess and their ability to learn, not just their degrees they hold,” said National Cyber Director Harry Coker, Jr.

The event focused on ways to fill those positions. Public and private sector attendees made additional commitments to promote alternative hiring methods, in lieu of the four-year college degree.

Contractors Included

The skills-based hiring push applies to federal contractors as well.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working on removing degree requirements for some of its contractor positions.

“Contractors are a key part of our workforce. And as we move towards that skill-based hiring, we need to ensure that the same standards that are applied to federal are also applied to contracts,” said DOE Office of Science Chief Information Officer Shila Cooch.

And Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Rob Shriver said this is just the tip of the iceberg, as OPM plans to expand the use of competency-based hiring more broadly in fiscal year (FY) 2025.

“We have to go through the qualifications, the classification, the assessment process,” said OPM’s Shriver. “Once we do that for the 2210s, we’re going to prioritize what comes next and keep working on it until we transform the entire process.”

The guidance on transferring the 2210 series into skills-based hiring is expected from OPM is sometime in FY 2025.