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The Presidential Management Intern program has attracted outstanding people in its 25-year history, but the program's assumption that participants will embark on lengthy careers as senior managers in the government is obsolete, according to a new report.

The esteemed internship program has had difficulty retaining and grooming participants for future leadership positions in the federal workforce, which has limited "its ability to be an effective tool in the government's long-range human capital management," concluded Judith Labiner, deputy director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service, in the report.

"Recruiting highly talented graduate students, providing two years of training, hoping that they turn out to be good managers, and assuming that they will stay long enough to manage may simply be an unrealistic strategy," wrote Labiner in the report.

Labiner recommended that the program shift its focus from developing and retaining senior career managers to recruiting graduate students from a wide range of disciplines who could serve the government for two years - the length of the internship - or their entire career, if they chose to do so.

"Rather than a management internship, it could simply be a competitive federal program for recent master's, law and doctoral students. Removing the seemingly unrealized management focus, the program could expand to students interested in technical or other nonmanagerial work."

The Office of Personnel Management, which administers the PMI program, has tried in recent years to attract graduate students from more academically and socially diverse backgrounds to the internship. In a response to a 2001 report from the Merit Systems Protection Board, which criticized the program for failing to attract candidates with management potential, Steven Cohen, then-acting director of OPM, defended the agency's efforts to broaden its scope. Cohen said the program should be used to recruit people from a "wide variety of academic and social backgrounds who can do the critical analysis of policies and programs that is needed for government to serve its citizens."

On Tuesday, an OPM spokesman declined to comment on Labiner's report, but said that the agency plans to launch a "whole new" PMI program in early fall. In January, OPM announced proposed changes, including a possible pay raise for entry-level interns. The spokesman would not offer specific details of the program's redesign.

Based on telephone surveys conducted with PMIs between 2001 and 2003 and data from the Merit Systems Protection Board, Labiner concluded that PMIs were disappointed with the program's lack of opportunities for personal growth and skill development, dissatisfied with the nature of federal work in general and more interested in pursuing a varied career path that included work in both the public and private sectors.

"With realities about management development falling so short of expectations . . . problems with the PMI program appear intractable," Labiner wrote.

President Jimmy Carter issued a 1977 executive order creating the PMI program, which he hoped would attract civil servants with "exceptional management potential who have received special training in planning and managing public programs and policies." A 1982 executive order from President Ronald Reagan expanded the program to draw applicants with a "clear interest in, and commitment to, a career in the analysis and management of public policies and programs," not just those with specific training in public management.

COMMENTS

• I am a member of the PMF class of 2006. Although i was intitially enthused about the program, my viewpoint has changed. It was sold by the OPM and the Career Development Office as a "Management Program." However, in practice it has been a way for the agencies to recruit highly talented indivduals for cheap money, an 'end run" around the competitive civil service. I understand that the program is not centralized, and therefore each Fellow has different results. There is a solution, however, other than dropping the "Management" word in the title. I would encourage OPM to hold trainings for agencies that wish to hire PMF's. OPM can train the agencies as to how they envision the program to work. Agencies that do not attend the training or do not share the vision prescribed by the OPM should be prevented from hiring, and ultimately ruining, fresh new graduates who thought they wanted a career in the federal government. But, as the old saying goes "you can't fight city hall." I fear that the program has, and will continued to be used as an opportunity to hire a highly talented graduate into a dea end job. John D. Martorana Posted June 29, 2007 5:35 PM
• I gethered the following from the report: 1. Most interviewed interns do not get stated management training nor developmental assignments. 2. Managers view program as way to recruit talented employees, but not as method of recruiting future managers. 3. Report suggested main problem was need to streamline federal hiring process in order to recruit private sector mid and high level experienced managers. Thoughts… #1 above is result of organizational culture problems?…..other GS employees resistance to training less experienced interns to replace them? #1 above is the result of #2, which in turn leads to interns leaving to private sector in order to get better developmental training and opportunity to affect change. #3 above is a conclusion reached by the author in order to fix the problem. I view the problem as organizational resistance to change. Managers should be held accountable for developing their interns, especially when manager non-action affects mission accomplishment. Caseman Thompson Posted September 4, 2003 2:42 PM
• I am not a PMI, but I was an intern in DoD. As a "career" federal employee, I believe much of the problem with interns leaving federal service is the lack of professional growth and proper management itself. When you have high school graduates supervising college graduates who tell us we have no need for further education, where is the appreciation for someone who wants to learn and grow? I have 25 years in federal service and am one of the very few people utilized from within which is a sad fact for those graduates in the system who cannot get into these so-called intern programs for reasons unknown. Why not utilize the workforce that is costing the government anyway> Unfortunately, it is not only the young leaving but many of us who complete our degrees also decide when the time is ripe and early retirement is an option before I am too old to work anywhere else; that perhaps I can find more satisfaction on the outside. I am pursuing my CPA license and hope that will be the case. Time to look at who's managing the potential managers—the example and the guidance has to be there, as well as opportunities to particpate and be part of the mission. Pamela Johnson Posted September 2, 2003 12:04 PM