The Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) is a member of the Quality and Oversight Team and serves as an integral part of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Quality Assurance (QA) program, ensuring services are provided to claimants and VR&E division are operated in compliance with polices and guidelines.

Duties

Conducts quality review, analysis and evaluation of VR&E records randomly selected from VBA Regional Offices to ensure compliance with statutes, regulations, directives, procedures, and ethical standards of rehabilitation services and employment service delivery. Evaluates and identifies deficiencies of elements of a case including application, entitlement, evaluation, planning, case management, fiscal activity, and case closure. Provides an explanation of errors and includes comments where attention is warranted. Conducts statistical analysis of quality review data to identify trends, significant problems areas, and processes requiring improvement. Relays quality trend data to management and appropriate VR&E staff to identify need for clarification, training, and use in operations, decision making, and planning. Serves as an advisor and consultant to VR&E Service management on precedent determinations involving decisions in individual cases and/or on technical and operations matters related to VR&E quality assurance activities as they relate to program deficiencies, best practices, or recommendations for improvements. Participates in site visit reviews of VR&E Divisions at various Reginal Offices to include review of program management, contracting, and out based activities. Develop narrative assessments, write adjudicative decision rationales, provide oral briefings and presentations, perform supportive counseling, and participate effectively in pertinent team-based activities. Evaluates the Reginal Office's implementation of new processes or procedures. Consults with VR&E Officers to address action items, trends, and best practices identified during site visits and/or audits. Provides training to VR&E staff and management regarding findings of case reviews, site visits, audits, best practices in service delivery, and opportunities to improve quality of service delivery and increase positive outcomes. Maintains current in-depth understanding of all laws, regulations, and policy guidelines and the effect in the administration of Veterans' benefits with emphasis on vocational rehabilitation and employment. Serves as technical consultant/advisor to VR&E field and VACO staff in issues related to quality and internal controls. 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; 39318-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:09/26/2023. 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: Specialized Experience is described as knowledge and/or experience in at least two or more of the identified skills. Specialized experience is defined as knowledge or skills in vocational rehabilitation counseling, techniques and resources needed to work with individuals with serious disabilities; experience in psychological and vocational testing principles, independent living (IL) requirements and/or experience in a large body of vocational rehabilitation laws, regulations, rules and policies in applying adjudicative decisions and/or writing rehabilitation plans. 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.
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]