[IPAC-List] Executive Order on Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates

[mhammer at 295.ca]

No inside info, but that's an interesting edict, with pros and cons.

On the one hand, I think we've witnessed a gradual drift over decades from
employers expecting to groom and develop new hires, to passing the burden
of development, including its cost, to hires themselves.  The ease with
which another hire with qualifications can replace an existing one
contributes, in my view, to the reduced commitment of employers to
employees.  Moreover, the impact on the timing of many subsequent life
stages (family life, home purchase, etc.), including the social
institution of retirement, of expecting young adults to commit additional
years to post-secondary education, before entering the workforce, WITH a
substantial debt burden, is sorely underestimated, in my view.  So, at one
level, reducing "credentialism" is, conceptually, a good thing.

At the same time, many more jobs within the public sector DO require ever
greater KSAs, that require more education.  That education doesn't HAVE to
come from a university program - community colleges regularly expand their
program offerings - but few federal agencies would have the capacity to
provide that training, without expense and time.

The timelines laid out in the order strike me as woefully unrealistic. 
Six months to figure out how to replace academic qualifications with
something else having the same predictive validity?  Dream on, buddy,
dream on.

Mark Hammer
Ottawa


> Any inside scoop on how this executive order came to be?
>
> https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-reforming-assessment-hiring-federal-job-candidates/
>
> - -
> Joel P. Wiesen, Ph.D., Director
> Applied Personnel Research
> 62 Candlewood Road
> Scarsdale, NY 10583-6040
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelwiesen
> (617) 244-8859
> http://appliedpersonnelresearch.com
>
> Continuing Education website (home study of recent journal articles):
> https://www.aprtestingservice.com/