Combining Undergraduate Education and Experience, Administrative

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Combining Undergraduate Education and Experience for Two Grade Interval, Administrative and Management Positions
GS-05

Definitions:

EXPERIENCE: One year of work experience is twelve months working full-time (at least 35-40 hours per week). Part-time experience can be pro-rated (i.e., a year at 20 hours per week is credited as 6 months of experience). If your position consisted of mixed duties, experience credit is given for the percentage of time that you spent on qualifying duties (i.e., if you held a position for 2 years, full-time, consisting of 25% personnel work and 75% budget work, and then applied for a budget position you could calculate your experience as follows: 2 yrs = 24 months. 24 months x 75% [percentage of time spent on budget duties] = 18 months of qualifying experience.)

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION: A year of undergraduate education is 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours or the equivalent of college study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent was a prerequisite.

GRADUATE EDUCATION: In the absence of specific graduate program information, a year of graduate education is 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours of graduate level college course work, or the number of credit hours the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full time study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university.

To combine your education and experience, you must convert each to a percentage and then add them together, following Steps 1, 2, & 3 below.

Step 1 - Education

Successfully completed progressive education of a course of study leading to a bachelor's or higher degree is credited on its relationship to 120 semester hours or 180 quarter hours. Thus, 30 semester hours or 45-quarter hours of progressive study is comparable to 1 year of undergraduate education. To combine education and experience you must have the appropriate number of required credit hours of specific course work as described in option "B" of the Basic Education Requirement for the series you are applying for. Compute your percentage of semester or quarter hours with this formula:

FORMULA: YOUR NUMBER OF SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED SEMESTER HOURS DIVIDED BY 120 SEMESTER HOURS OR YOUR NUMBER OF SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED QUARTER HOURS DIVIDED BY 180 QUARTER HOURS.

EXAMPLES:

Education totaled 44 semester hours of progressive study (includes required # of credit hrs. in directly related courses). (Formula: 44 divided by 120 = .366 or 37%)
Education totaled 67 quarter hours of progressive study (includes required # of credit hrs. in directly related coursework). (Formula: 67 divided by 180 = .372 or 37%)

Step 2 - Qualifying Experience

Determine your qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required. Three years of experience, one year of which was equivalent to at least the GS-04 level, related to the position for which you are applying. Acceptable experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that when combined with your creditable education it provides you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities, including the necessary analytical and communication skills required to perform the work of the position you are applying for.

FORMULA:

Take the number of months of pertinent GS-04 experience divided by 12, and the result multipled by .333.
Take the number of months of other general experience divided by 24, and the result multiplied by .666
Add the percentage from #1 and #2 together to get the total percentage of qualifying experience.

EXAMPLE:

If you have 5 months of GS-04 level experience (pertinent to the job your are applying for), 5 divided by 12 = .42. Now take that number, .42, and multiply by .333, .42 x .333 = .14 (14%)
If you have 7 months of other general experience, 7 divided by 24 = .29. Now take that number, .29, and multiply by .666, .29 x .666 = .19 (19%)
Add the percentage from the GS-04 level experience to your percentage from your other general experience, 14% + 19% = 33% of qualifying experience.

Step 3 - Combining Education and Experience

Now, take your percentage of education and your percentage of experience and add them together. In order to meet the qualification requirement through a combination of education and experience, the total of the two percentages must be at least 100% or you do not meet the requirement.