TOPICS
TOPICS
USDA touts success with intern program
A partnership between the Agriculture Department and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities to help interns land full-time government jobs could provide a recruitment model for other federal agencies to follow.
Since 1996 Agriculture has worked with HACU's National Internship Program to bring promising Hispanic interns into the department for mission-critical positions. Maria Goldberg, executive director of the USDA Hispanic Serving Institution Program, said Agriculture uses the Student Career Experience Program -- the only program that allows agencies to noncompetitively convert student interns into career employees -- to funnel interns into full-time federal jobs. Before the creation of SCEP in 1994, Agriculture and other departments didn't have an alternative to the complicated and lengthy federal hiring process to offer interns permanent jobs after they graduated from college.
"It's kind of like a three-step process. First you check them out, then you take them from HACU, then put them in SCEP," Goldberg said. "That way by the time you put them in SCEP, you know they're high-performing."
For other HACU interns applying for jobs through the competitive process, Goldberg said USDA provides candidates with the opportunity to do mock interviews and with help writing knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) essays so they will be better prepared to compete for federal jobs.
Those efforts have produced results. A 2004 USDA survey found that 43 percent of HACU interns in the department were working in public service, and 21 percent of them were permanent employees at USDA.
A 2007 study of the HACU National Internship Program overall found that 38 percent of participants go on to become permanent federal employees, and 15 percent go on to work for state or local governments.
"I frankly was surprised to see the high rate of retention for our program in particular," said Antonio Flores, HACU president. "It's not like they're [always] retained automatically, but the connections they make seem to influence their decision to seek a job with the government and facilitate them in getting it."
In contrast to USDA and HACU data, a new report from the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service said the federal government as a whole does a poor job of retaining high-performing interns. The study found that only 6.6 percent of interns who participated in the two largest federal internship programs in 2007 went on to full-time federal employment.
Goldberg said it is part of Agriculture's strategic plan to double the number of HACU interns who become permanent employees of the department. USDA also is hiring a coordinator to track its HACU interns and analyze where they are finding federal sector jobs.
COMMENTS
- I would like to share with you my experience as both a HACU and SCEP participant. Both programs helped me achieve my professional and personal goal of becoming a public servant. I applied to the HACU Internship Program when I was a student majoring in business administration at the State University of New York. I interned with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the HACU National Internship Program. I was selected to the HACU Internship Program based on my academic qualifications, professional experience, and leadership potential – no my ethnicity. As a result of my last HACU Internship experience with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I was offered a SCEP position and pursued my MBA at Johns Hopkins University. It is extremely important for federal managers to use a variety of recruitment tools to attract talent to serve the diverse citizens of our country. Also, when comparing cost and effectiveness it is critical that you look at the same factors. For example, one reader pointed that HACU is more expensive than a SCEP intern. However, the reader only accounted for salary and did not take into account the cost that the government would have to incur to recruit a qualified student, provide orientation, find affordable housing, and administer the program. This is an important dialog and encourage you continue voicing your opinions and ideas. Especially if you have positive solutions to the vexing challenges facing the government and our country. VD Posted April 15, 2009 1:59 PM
- People are hired based on merit. Not everyone is suited for the SCEP program, because there has to be a commitment that a candidate would major in a field that would allow them to meet the education requirements for the target position, and they will complete the degree (condition of conversion to a permanent position). So it is very likely someone can be released from the program. I work for a USDA agency in a predominantly white state (Utah). The SCEP program gives us a chance to attract minority candidates such as hispanics who generally do not view our agency and state as a place to come and live and work for whatever reason. The majority of people who apply for our jobs and get hired, are white male then white female. The SCEP allows us to get our name out to under-represented groups who don't know about our agency, and that we have offices in Utah, and that Utah isn't a bad place to live and work. So chill out white people, geez. sole Posted April 14, 2009 10:52 AM
- Here we go again--Hiring people on the basis of ethnicity is just plain wrong. The best candidates should be hired regardless of ethnicity. c. shaw Posted April 14, 2009 8:17 AM
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