7 Sky Foreign Education
Miss Ruhnke
In accordance with 5 CFR 338, this site contains policy established by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for General Schedule (GS) (or equivalent) white collar occupations in the Federal Government. This information is primarily for Federal agencies that need to determine whether applicants meet the minimum requirements for the positions being filled.
Qualification standards are intended to identify applicants who are likely to perform successfully on the job, and to screen out those who are unlikely to do so. The standards are not designed to rank candidates, identify the best qualified applicants for particular positions, or otherwise substitute for a careful analysis of the applicant's knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies. The General Schedule Qualification Standards section of the Operating Manual contains group qualification standards, associated individual occupational requirements (IORs), individual qualification standards, and competency based qualification policy and guidance.
This section contains the policies, instructions, and standards used to help determine the qualifications of applicants for Federal employment. The qualification requirements in this section are used when filling General Schedule (GS) positions at grades GS-1 through GS-15. The requirements must be met by all individuals appointed to General Schedule positions in the competitive service. The qualification requirements in this section, other than testing, may be used for excepted service positions under Schedule B and also used for Veterans' Recruitment Appointment (VRA) applicants.
OPM is responsible for developing and issuing minimum qualification standards,policies, and instructions. OPM is also responsible for approving qualification standards for particular positions when no standard in this section is appropriate for filling an agency's position(s).
Federal executive branch agencies are responsible for applying the appropriate standards in individual personnel actions and when examining for positions under a delegated examining authority. Agencies are required to establish and outline policies that implement the OPM provisions prescribed in this operating manual in their agency merit promotion plans, policy, and guidance. Information provided in OPM qualification standards generally is not sufficiently specific to be used directly in examining for positions or quoted in job announcements. Therefore,agencies must include in their job announcements the general or specialized experience or education required for their positions. It is not adequate to state,"See Qualification Standards Operating Manual for General Schedule Positions for experience requirements. (See (c)) on describing experience in job announcements). All job postings must include specific qualifications based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)/competencies from a job analysis for each employment action (5 CFR 300.103).
Agencies are also responsible for developing selective factors, when needed, to supplement the standards in this section. Selective factors may only be prescribed if the KSAs/competencies are required upon entry to the position and are essential to performing work successfully as validated by a job analysis (Delegated Examining Operations Handbook, Chapter 2).
Agencies are responsible for establishing medical standards without OPM approval for occupations for which they are the predominant employer, i.e., have 50 percent or more of the positions in the occupation (See 9(b)).
Agencies can also modify qualification requirements for certain inservice placement actions (See 8(c)). When agencies define or modify particular requirements, they are responsible for supporting their decisions. Agencies can also waive or modify qualification requirements when assigning employees in reductions in force or in lieu of reductions in force. (See OPM guidance on reduction-in-force procedures.)
Agencies may request from OPM waivers of qualification requirements on a case-by-case basis if after careful analysis of applicant qualifications, it is determined applicants may qualify based on other qualifications gained through experience, education or training. (See Waiver Request)
When filling Schedule B positions, an agency's standards can include more restrictive requirements, e.g., qualifying experience, but they cannot be lower than or substantially different from the OPM standards. Agencies are responsible for justifying, based on the work of the Schedule B positions involved, any qualification requirements used in addition to those in OPM qualification standards.
The qualification standards in this section help determine which applicants would be able to perform satisfactorily in the positions to be filled. The education, training, experience, or other requirements included in the qualification standards are minimum requirements, i.e., it would be unlikely that an applicant for employment would be able to perform satisfactorily in a particular position or occupational series if he or she did not possess these qualifications. The standards are designed to be easy to understand and to eliminate artificial barriers that hinder entrance into Federal occupational series. The standards provide flexibility through a job analysis to identify the needed KSAs/competencies to meet agencies missions.
Many qualification standards include requirements such as the ability to communicate orally and/or in writing, or to produce information through the use of computers or other machines. Such ability requirements are not intended to limit how an applicant will physically perform a duty, i.e., they are not meant to exclude from consideration applicants with disabilities who have demonstrated that they can do the work in other ways, such as by using readers, interpreters, voice-activated equipment, or assistive technology. The required abilities are to ensure that the end product of the speaking, writing, etc., is of the appropriate level of competence. Agencies should keep in mind that reasonable accommodation, including job restructuring, must be considered in determining whether an individual meets the required KSAs/competencies.
Most qualification standards permit applicants to qualify on the basis of education/training, experience, or a combination of the two. They include the patterns of education, training, and/or experience most commonly applicable to a particular occupational series. Some qualification standards, however, have specific educational, licensure, or certification requirements that may apply only to specific positions in an occupational series.
Furthermore, the requirements in OPM qualification standards can be supplemented by selective or quality ranking factors as described below in 6. and 7. OPM qualification standards include broad requirements used governmentwide. Agencies must identify the competencies needed for their positions and not copy minimum qualifications verbatim. Agencies must conduct job analyses to supplement OPM qualification standards (5 CFR 300.103).
Agencies and examining offices should select the qualification standard that covers the occupational series to which a position has been classified. If there is more than one standard for an occupational series, they should select the standard for the applicable position(s).
For inservice placement actions, agencies should apply the appropriate standards and instructions in this section. If, however, at the time of an inservice placement action, the qualification requirements in an open competitive examination for an occupation are different from those in this section, agencies can apply the requirements in either the competitive examination or in this section.
New or revised qualification standards issued by OPM must be implemented immediately upon the date of publication, unless otherwise specified by OPM. Agencies may submit a request to OPM for an extension to implement new or revised qualification standards when doing so will create a burden on the agency due to other agency or governmentwide competing priorities or initiatives.
Crediting one-grade interval or wage grade experience -- If the experience demonstrated the KSAs/competencies required to perform the work successfully,technician, paraprofessional, and substantive clerical support experience may be qualifying for two-grade interval positions, and wage grade experience may be qualifying for General Schedule positions, this is true for either lateral or promotion actions.
The basic requirements for type and level of experience and/or education apply to all applicants, whether their experience has been in the same occupation as the position being filled or in related support or wage grade occupations. Work experience that included both qualifying and non qualifying duties is credited based on the percentage of time spent on the creditable experience.
Applicants with specialized experience can have that experience credited towards meeting the basic requirements for professional occupations that permit qualification on the basis of experience as well as education. Such experience may be creditable not only for meeting the basic requirements, but also for positions at GS-7 and above if it is comparable to that which would have been gained in a two-grade interval professional series and clearly demonstrates that the applicant has the necessary background to perform satisfactorily the duties of the position to be filled.
Since two-grade interval positions may differ significantly in the nature of the work (e.g., greater independence, responsibility, and judgment), it is important that applicants be evaluated on the variety and progressive nature of their work assignments and on any applicable training or course work completed.
Part-time work is prorated in crediting experience. For example, an employee working 20 hours per week for a 12-month period should be credited with 6 months of experience. Creditable experience should generally be determined on the basis of hours in a pay status (excluding overtime) rather than scheduled hours in order to recognize the service of part-time employees who frequently are required to work additional straight-time hours.
c80f0f1006