President Clinton creates new federal intern program

Federal agencies have a new recruitment tool available to them under an executive order issued by President Clinton Tuesday.

The order provides for the establishment of the Federal Career Intern Program, designed to offer professional civil service experience to participants, and to offer a pool of experienced job candidates to agencies.

"The program is another step in the administration's effort to recruit the highest caliber people to the federal government, develop their professional abilities, and retain them in federal departments and agencies," the order said.

Employees hired under the program will receive excepted-service appointments for up to two years at grades GS-5 through GS-9. The intern jobs can be professional, administrative or technical. Successful completion of the internship will allow participants the option of converting to a full-time job in the civil service, without going through the competitive process.

The program isn't just open to new civil servants. Current federal employees can also apply.

While the traditional method to enter federal service is by appointment through a competitive process, the Office of Personnel Management can create special hiring authorities that waive competitive requirements.

OPM has been put in charge of developing merit-based methods for recruiting, screening and placing the new breed of interns. Veterans' preference will apply to applicants in the new intern program.

OPM Director Janice R. Lachance said the program will help make the federal government a career of choice and will "help agencies maintain a steady stream of qualified employees in diverse occupations who are ready to advance and assume greater roles."

Another special hiring authority, the Outstanding Scholar program, has been criticized recently by the Merit Systems Protection Board for failing to uphold merit principles. But an OPM spokesman said the new intern program is noncontroversial and should not provoke similar debate.