Student Educational Employment Program

Hiring During Traditional Summer Months

The Office of Personnel Management has eliminated language in title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, that placed certain restrictions on agency hiring during the traditional summer months. These changes (62 FR 19899) became effective April 24, 1997. This means that agencies wishing to hire individuals on a temporary basis during the traditional summer months should use competitive temporary appointments or excepted student temporary appointments. In addition, other excepted appointments (e.g., the appointment of individuals with mental or physical disabilities) may be used as appropriate. Agencies are encouraged to review the following provisions:

• Written test requirements are waived for competitive temporary appointments that do not exceed 120 days (including extensions).

• Agencies may non-competitively appoint previous summer hires in accordance with 5 CFR 316.402. [This provision is similar to the old "summer rehire" provision]. However, agencies must adhere to the requirements of the Career Transition Assistance and Interagency Career Transition Assistance Programs concerning competitive temporary appointments.

• Agencies filling time-limited jobs competitively must conduct open recruitment. They must enter their job summaries and full text vacancy announcements into OPM's Federal Jobs Database for delivery through the Governmentwide Automated Employment Information System.

Agencies recruiting under the Student Educational Employment Program are strongly encouraged to enter their vacancies into the database. The Governmentwide Automated Employment Information System is readily accessible to the academic community via the world wide web, computer bulletin boards, and telephone. This information system contains specific searches for jobs being filled during the summer months. It is an effective and cost efficient way to reach high quality candidates worldwide.

In making these competitive or excepted appointments, just as with other appointments, the rules on veterans' preference, nepotism, and priority referral of displaced Federal employees apply.

Also, agencies must use the appropriate coding instructions contained in the Guide to Processing Personnel Actions