Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist - Mental Health

The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) position is located at the Kansas City VA Medical Center (KCVAMC), in the Mental Health Service Line. The incumbent is assigned Vocational Rehabilitation duties throughout the hospital, its clinics, and within the community. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist falls under the auspices of the VHA Vocational Rehabilitation Service/Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) programs.Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/26/2023.
Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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. 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 provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.
Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist GS-11 requires the Individual Occupational Requirement be met.
Individual Occupational Requirement
Education Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- Vocational Rehabilitation, vocational or educational counseling, or other fields related to the position.
OR
Specialized Experience: Examples of qualifying specialized experience include:

• Work that required obtaining and applying occupational information for people with disabilities, knowledge of the interrelationships of the involved professional and specialist services, and skill in employing the methodology and techniques of counseling to motivate and encourage individuals served by the program.
• Experience that demonstrated knowledge of the Vocational Rehabilitation problems characteristic of the disabled, including familiarity with available resources and skill in identifying, evaluating, and making effective use of such resources to serve individuals with disabilities; or of the disadvantaged, including knowledge of adjustment problems of the educationally or culturally disadvantaged, familiarity with available adult education and training resources, and ability to recognize problem areas needing special attention.
• Experience in vocational guidance or teaching in a recognized Vocational Rehabilitation program or school, developmental or supervisory work in programs of Vocational Rehabilitation or training programs for the disadvantaged, or personnel or employment placement work that provided extensive knowledge of the training and adjustment requirements necessary to place persons having disabilities or social adjustment problems.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: counseling handicapped individuals to provide Vocational Rehabilitation services; evaluating patient qualifications, strengths and weaknesses to determine the most suitable types of employment for each patient; planning and arranging for applicant to study or train for job and possessing basic knowledge of the program objectives of local, state, and Federal agencies to insure that action is appropriate. OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED). OR,
• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education as described above.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Analysis and Problem Solving
• Clinical Data Collection/Documentation
• Planning and Evaluating
• Planning and Evaluating
• Psychology

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.
Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.
Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.
For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://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.
Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.Employment Type: FULL_TIME