Two New Talent Programs to Boost Early Career Hiring
The federal government is adding new programs to bring young workers in. Under the new programs, qualified workers can more easily transfer between different agencies.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) launched two new talent programs to bring more early career workers into the federal government workforce.
The Pathways Intern Talent Program and the Recent Graduates Talent Program were formally launched by OPM in October, after soft launches earlier in the year.
“We encourage agencies to take advantage of this readily available pool of early career talent when filling vacancies,” said OPM Associate Director for Workforce Policy and Innovation Veronica Hinton.
The talent programs are a new feature on USAJOBS’ Agency Talent Portal (ATP), which is open to all federal employees. Recruiters will need an ATP account to access the new tools.
Program Details
The Pathways Intern Talent Program soft launched in March 2024. The goal is to connect Pathways Interns who are qualified but unable to land full-time employment at their employing agency, with other federal agencies.
The Recent Graduates Talent Program does the same thing but for recent graduates. It soft launched in July 2024.
The new programs aim to speed up the hiring process and fill vacancies non-competitively with pre-qualified candidates.
“These Talent Programs allow agencies to reach out to promising individuals eager to advance their federal careers,” said Associate Director Hinton.
OPM said the soft launches were needed to give HR employees time to learn the new tools, particularly with learning how to transfer candidates from one agency to another.
Pathways Changes
This is just one of the changes to the Pathways Program as the federal government looks to spur hiring.
A rule issued earlier this year expanded applicant eligibility to individuals without a college degree, but who have completed career or technical education programs. Agencies were also given more time to convert interns into permanent hires.
