OPM announces relaxed hiring rules for federal interns

The Office of Personnel Management is preparing to release revised regulations designed to make it easier for federal agencies to recruit top students for the government workforce.

The changes to the Student Career Experience Program, which were initially broached early last year, have now been vetted by the Office of Management and Budget, acting OPM Director Dan G. Blair said Thursday.

"The proposed regulations to the SCEP support OPM's efforts to give greater flexibility in hiring and retention efforts," said Blair in a statement. "We urge federal agencies to use this and other flexibilities to ensure their workforces are prepared to do the critical and demanding work of this new century."

Specifically, the new rules will allow students to use experience at some nonfederal internships or military service toward the time needed under a SCEP appointment to qualify for a permanent federal job.

Currently, students who intern for a federal agency as part of the SCEP program may be noncompetitively appointed to a federal job after they finish their schooling and log 640 hours of federal work experience. According to the rule announced Thursday, OPM would allow students to accrue up to 320 hours of service while working for an agency on behalf of a sanctioned nongovernmental program or while serving in the military-including the National Guard or reserves.

The proposed rule would also allow an agency to waive up to half of the required SCEP work experience hours for participating students who are deemed to have exceptional job performance and academic excellence. To be eligible, the students also must be enrolled in accredited universities.

"These proposed changes allow federal agencies to take advantage of relevant, job-related experience acquired in public service work-study programs that are as rigorous as programs they may themselves offer," Blair said. "Agencies will benefit significantly because they will have prior knowledge of the students' abilities before a job offer is extended."

The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit advocacy group, has been pushing for the SCEP reforms, and praised Thursday's announcement.

"We salute OPM for providing young people with a clearer and less burdensome path toward public service," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership. "Historically, the government has not fully exploited the full benefits of internship programs, but today's news shows that OPM is moving the ball in the right direction.