OPM Guidance Proposes Updated Requirements for Public Service
An OPM guidance released on Friday builds on an executive order released by President Trump on June 26 directing agencies to expand the use of valid, competency-based assessments and narrow the use of educational qualifications in the federal hiring process. A primary goal of the executive order is to mimic the private sector’s use of competency-based assessments rather than degree-based hiring.
The executive order explains, “Employers adopting skills- and competency-based hiring recognize that an overreliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates and undermines labor-market efficiencies. Degree-based hiring is especially likely to exclude qualified candidates for jobs related to emerging technologies and those with weak connections between educational attainment and the skills or competencies required to perform them. Moreover, unnecessary obstacles to opportunity disproportionately burden low-income Americans and decrease economic mobility.”
A competency-based assessment is one where a potential employee is evaluated based on their skills to see if they have the skills to successfully accomplish a job. For many jobs in the federal workforce, this competency can come from experience in the field and thus does not require a degree. Positive education requirements are the minimum education requirements for certain jobs in federal government. For example, to be a doctor at the VA, candidates should have a relevant medical degree.
OPM guidance issued September 25, 2020 details that “developing competency-based assessments will benefit the Federal workforce by generating larger pools of highly skilled job candidates from which agencies may choose their employees, thereby enabling highly skilled workers with non-traditional educational paths to serve the American public.”
In the same memo, OPM issued a List of Occupational Series with Positive Education Requirements for agency review. This document proposes credentials and requirements for potential employees of specific agencies. For example, in the law clerk series, OPM has no standard requirements. However, to become an administrative law judge, one must have licensure, experience, and pass an examination. In the computer science series, a degree is required, but for the statistics series, a combination of education and experience will suffice.
According to the memo, federal employees covered by the General Schedule Classification System under Title 5, United States Code will be impacted by the proposed updates.
Each agency is only allowed one submission with their comments and feedback, with agency submissions due to OPM by October 16, 2020.
