VA developed a scalable, sustainable program model, which will provide a pathway to quickly hire a diverse population into the federal government. The program specifically focuses on hiring cybersecurity roles to protect vulnerable IT systems’ dependability, integrity and data privacy. The first cohort of eight to 10 apprentices will begin February 2023.
Pay disparity between private sector and government positions are also a challenge. To make VA’s salaries more competitive with industry, the agency collaborated with the Office of Personnel Management in July 2022 on a special salary rate for IT specialists.
“If that is approved in January 2023, that affects over 75,000 federal workers that are IT specialists in 2210 series,” Tierney said. “I’m really happy about that because that’s been leading the charge in driving big change not only within the department, but also the federal government.” … Read the full article here.
