Combining Education and Experience For GS-04 Technician Positions
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.)
EDUCATION: One year of full-time academic study is 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university, or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business or technical school. This education must have been successfully completed and obtained in an accredited business, technical school, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent was a prerequisite.
To combine your education and experience, you must convert each to a percentage. (The maximum percentage credit for general experience is 50%). Add the percentages together, following Steps 1, 2, 3 & 4 below.
Step 1—Education
Successfully completed education is credited on its relationship to 60 semester hours, 90 quarter hours, or 1440 classroom hours. Thus 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, 720 classroom hours or the equivalent of study is comparable to 1 year of post high school education. If such education is used to meet any part of the experience requirement, it must include the appropriate number of directly related credit hours required in any combination of courses as described in the Qualification Requirements for the GS-04 level of the series you are applying for. When crediting education, prorate the number of hours of directly related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used (see step 3 below). Compute your number of semester, quarter or classroom hours with this formula:
FORMULA: YOUR NUMBER OF SEMESTER HOURS DIVIDED BY 60 SEMESTER HOURS, OR YOUR NUMBER OF QUARTER HOURS DIVIDED BY 90 QUARTER HOURS, OR YOUR NUMBER OF CLASSROOM HOURS DIVIDED BY 1440 CLASSROOM HOURS.
EXAMPLES:
- If you have completed 21 semester hours, 21 divided by 60 =.35 (35%)
- If you have completed 45 quarter hours, 45 divided by 90 = .50 (50%)
- If you have completed 720 classroom hours, 720 divided by 1440 = .50 (50%)
Step 2—Qualifying Experience
Determine your qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for this position.
FORMULA: YOUR NUMBER OF MONTHS OF PERTINENT GENERAL EXPERIENCE DIVIDED BY 12. NOT-T0-EXCEED A MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE CREDIT FOR GENERAL EXPERIENCE OF 50%.
EXAMPLES:
- If you have 8 months of appropriate general experience, 8 divided by 12 = .666 (67%-- BUT 50% is the maximum credit allowed so the 8 months of general experience = 50% of the overall experience requirement).
- If you have 4 months of appropriate general experience, 4 divided by 12 = .333 (33%)
FORMULA: YOUR NUMBER OF MONTHS OF PERTINENT SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE DIVIDED BY 12.
EXAMPLES:
- If you have 6 months of appropriate specialized experience, 6 divided by 12 = .50 (50%)
- If you have 4 months of appropriate specialized experience, 4 divided by 12 = .333 (33%)
Step 3—Directly Related Courses
Compute the number of directly related course credit hours required with this formula:
FORMULA: PRORATE THE NUMBER OF HOURS OF DIRECTLY RELATED COURSES REQUIRED AS A PROPORTION OF THE TOTAL EDUCATION TO BE USED.
EXAMPLE #1:
- If you have 5 months of qualifying general experience (42%)
- 0 months of specialized experience (0%)
- 36 semester hours (60%), 7 of the 36 semester hours must be in directly related courses.
FORMULA:
100% (total requirement)
- 42% (% of the required 6 months general experience applicant meets)
- 0% (% of the required 6 months specialized experience applicant meets)
58% (% of 1 year experience requirement education will be substituting for)
12 (# of semester hrs. of directly related courses normally required when substituting education to qualify for GS-4 based on 2 full years of post high school education )
x 58% (% of 1 yr.exp. requirement education will be substituting for)
6.96 or 7 semester hrs (must be in directly related courses)
EXAMPLE #2:
- If you have 8 months of qualifying general experience (50%-- maximum % credit allowed)
- 3 months of specialized experience (25%)
- 15 semester hours (25%), 3 of the 15 semester hours must be in directly related courses.
FORMULA:
100% (total requirement)
-50% (% of the required 6 months general experience applicant meets)
-25% (% of the required 6 months specialized experience applicant meets)
25% (% of 1 year experience requirement education will be substituting for)
12 (# of semester hrs. of directly related courses normally required when substituting education to qualify for GS-4 based on 2 full years of post high school education )
x 25% (% of 1 yr.exp. requirement education will be substituting for)
3 semester hrs (must be in directly related courses)
Step 4—Combining Education and Experience
Now, take your percentage of education and your percentage of experience and add them together. In order to meet the requirements through a combination of education and experience, the total of the three percentages must be at least 100%, your education MUST include the appropriate number of directly related courses, and the percentage of general experience cannot exceed 50% of the total or you do not qualify.
EXAMPLE #1:
- Education totaled 15 semester hrs. (3 sem. hrs. are in directly related courses) (Formula: 15 divided by 60 = .25 or 25%)
- Pertinent general experience totaled 8 months.
(Formula: 8 divided by 12 = .666 or 67%, but 50% is maximum allowed) - Pertinent specialized experience totaled 3 months.
(Formula: 3 divided by 12 = .25 or 25%) - TOTAL: 25% + 50% + 25% = 100% (100 % = QUALIFIED)
EXAMPLE #2:
- Education totaled 36 semester hours (applicant has NO directly related courses)
(Formula: 36 divided by 60 = .60 or 60%) - Pertinent general experience totaled 5 months.
(Formula: 5 divided by 12 = .416 or 42%) - NO pertinent specialized experience.
- TOTAL: 60% + 42% + 0% = 102% (NOT QUALIFIED-DOES NOT MEET DIRECTLY RELATED COURSE REQUIREMENT-If the applicant had possessed at least 7 sem. hrs. of directly related courses THEN he/she would have met the qualification requirement)