Merits of internship programs under debate

Federal internship programs should be revamped to include more evaluation of participants' fitness for permanent employment, a public service nonprofit group said in response to a proposal to allow direct hiring of graduate students who complete such programs.

"If you really want to talk about merit system principles, really all of that hinges on an appropriate assessment process," said Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service. "I can think of no better way to assess whether or not someone is a fit for the job than to bring them in under an internship scenario."

McManus said he agreed with many of the recommendations the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration made in a white paper on federal internships last week. The association argued that most graduate students should be non-competitively appointed to permanent federal jobs after completing federal internship programs. But McManus said it would make more sense to retool performance standards for internships and make sure interns were performing the tasks they would do as permanent hires. That way, he argued, internships could be better used to sort out top candidates.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, challenged the notion of allowing non-competitive appointments for graduate students. "There is no reason why graduate students cannot be recruited through competitive hiring, as well as through such excepted service internship programs as the Presidential Management Fellows program -- provided there are strict controls on the number of 'internships' awarded each year, so that the programs remain true internships," she said.

"Graduate students bring much to the table in terms of education," Kelley added, "but they should not overshadow experienced applicants and other employees who have demonstrated work ethic, as well as a wide knowledge of federal agency operations."

McManus said treating internships as a serious, integrated part of the competitive hiring process would help reduce the perception that interns come into government as candidates who might not have made it through the regular application process. He said the selection process for internships should emphasize merit by making it less important that prospective interns already have connections to the government.

McManus also said it was important to give existing internship and apprenticeship programs names that reflect the actual responsibilities and opportunities for the people who participate in them.

McManus said it was important not to tinker with programs that are successful, such as the Presidential Management Fellows program, which brings in young workers for two-year rotations at agencies and ends with job offers for those who complete it successfully. But he said it was important to change agencies' attitudes towards existing programs like the Student Career Experience Program, which can lead to non-competitive appointments to federal jobs. Agencies, he said, should use such programs as pipelines to permanent positions, rather than as sources of temporary labor.

Good internships, McManus said, can give prospective candidates the work experience the government often looks for in assessing job candidates. But it's important, he noted, that agencies also consider the experience and knowledge students gain through volunteerism and education.