U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt.

United States Office of Personnel Management

Operating Manual

Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions

Individual Occupational Requirements for

GS-1380:    Forest Products Technology Series

The text below is extracted verbatim from Section IV-B of the Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions (p.IV-B-194), but contains minor edits to conform to web-page requirements.

Use these individual occupational requirements in conjunction with the "Group Coverage Qualification Standard for Professional and Scientific Positions."

Basic Requirements:

  1. Degree: wood technology, wood utilization, forestry, biological science, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, or a related discipline or field of science that included at least 20 semester hours in appropriate forest products technology courses.
    OR
  2. Combination of education and experience--course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Education: Forest products technology is a diversified occupation that requires the application of various combinations of scientific knowledge, skills, and abilities derived from the biological, physical, and mathematical sciences and engineering. These requirements vary considerably depending upon the purpose of the work. Therefore, the course requirements for this series are based on the premise that a forest products technologist can obtain necessary scientific and technological training through education in a pertinent discipline or field of science, or by taking appropriate combinations of courses in several disciplines or fields of science. Because the nature of the work varies so much, the actual requirements of any specific forest products technologist position are, to a large extent, determined by the job demands of that particular position.

Courses in chemistry, physics, and mathematics are qualifying, as are courses in wood technology and wood utilization, or courses that emphasized or dealt with the application of the biological, physical, and mathematical sciences and engineering to wood technology and wood utilization. To be qualifying, courses in botany should emphasize the basic aspects of the science or deal with such subject-matter areas as anatomy, morphology, and cytology. Courses in forestry should be applicable to forest products technology. Engineering courses should be in basic engineering, or directed toward mechanics, materials, or properties and utilization of materials. Courses in forest insects, forest pathology, statics, kinematics, or mechanics of materials are qualifying on the basis of their direct application to forest products technology.

Page created 22 March 1999