This Announcement will be used to fill vacant positions within VA Central Office Veteran Readiness & Employment Service. The Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) in this position serves as a consultant, providing professional counsel and technical advice to VR&E field employees, as well as Veterans and/or their designated representatives, concerned with training and employment services for Veterans with disabilities.

Duties

Serves as technical consultant/advisor to VR&E field staff on rehabilitation issues and as such, provides advice and guidance on all aspects of the VR&E Program. Responsible for providing direct support to their assigned district(s), review applicable data for trend analysis, track and monitor targets, and communicate to VR&E leadership through briefings, any concerns or way forward. Serves as the Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor technical expert and advisor to VR&E business line management on highly complex (1) educational, (2) vocational and (3) rehabilitation counseling of persons who have physical or mental disabilities or (4) others in need of/or seeking vocational guidance issues that have significant impact on the VR&E mission and core processes. Investigates and responds to a variety of program related inquiries including Veteran, Congressional, and all other stakeholder inquiries. Assesses and responds to audit reports, program studies and reviews, and the General Accounting Office (GAO), VA Inspector General (IG), or General Counsel (GC) reports. Manages special projects focusing on vocational rehabilitation research and development issues. Address education and training in psychology and specialized issues about occupations/trends and educational facilities and programs. Participates in comprehensive studies resulting in innovative resolutions to program concerns intrinsic to VR&E managerial, administrative and operational components. Acts as a facilitator/manager of task force groups comprised of both VA employees and rehabilitation experts external to VA. Responsible for gathering data necessary for groups' formulation and development of policy proposals. Coordinates the development of proposed policy and procedures with veteran service organizations and other VR&E stakeholders. Responsible for coordinating and attending meetings, developing agenda topics, coordinating attendees travel, and any other duties as needed. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position Position Description/PD#: Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor; 38346-A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized. Relocation expenses and services (Permanent Change of Station - PCS) are authorized for this recruitment. PCS is the relocation of a household due to government convenience in connection with the transfer between duty stations or facilities. In consideration of the payment of expenses for travel and transportation, the selectee agrees to remain in federal service for twelve (12) months following the date of transfer. Failure to complete all conditions of the obligated service may result in repayment of travel/transportation expenses. Click here for more information. Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:09/15/2023. TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees, former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, or a current federal employee applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment must meet time in grade requirements. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. NOTE: This does not apply to Non-Federal Applicants, or applicants applying for consideration under Non-Competitive Authority (i.e.... "30% or more Disability", VRA, and/or Schedule A). To verify your eligibility, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 that indicates proof of status, and shows Time in Grade (for example, you were a career or career-conditional employee) and identifies your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must also submit your most recent promotion or within-grade increase in addition to your recent SF-50. If you previously held a higher grade, you must also submit any SF-50 showing that grade. DO NOT submit Award SF-50's and/or General Adjustment SF-50's as they cannot be used to prove time-in-grade. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level. BASIC REQUIREMENT: Satisfactory completion in an accredited college or university of all the requirements for a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling, including an internship; or a master's degree in counseling psychology or a related field, including at least 30 semester hours of course work in such areas as foundations of rehabilitation counseling, human growth and development, counseling theories and techniques, vocational assessment, career development, job placement, case management, and medical/psycho-social aspects of disability. Total graduate study must have included or been supplemented by a supervised internship. [For master's degree programs without a supervised internship/practicum, substitution is allowed for successful professional experience following completion of the master's degree. Experience suitable for substitution must be one full year in direct delivery of vocational rehabilitation services to adults with disabilities in rehabilitation programs, other than those in correctional facilities. The experience or internship/practicum must have been supervised by a professional in vocational rehabilitation or a closely related professional field that typically has oversight for vocational rehabilitation programs.] MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below:GS-13 Grade Level: Specialized Experience: Applicants must have two or more of the following skills required for this position. Specialized experience is defined as knowledge and experience in rehabilitation counseling skills, techniques, and resources to develop program designed to assist Veterans multiple disabilities; ability to identify gaps in current policy to ensure compliance with rehabilitation strategies; and/or knowledge determining administrative program effectiveness or recommending improvement of complex management processes. Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary; no special physical demands are required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to be credited towards qualifications. Provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
All education claimed by applicants will be verified upon appointment. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript to receive credit.

Contacts

• Address VBA Human Resources Center - Central Office 810 Vermont Ave NW Washington, DC 20420 US
• Name: Deborah Towery
• Phone: 410-230-4400
• Email: [email protected]