Student Trainee (Engineering and Architecture)

Post-Secondary Student positions provide for development and training. Assignments become more responsible as incumbent increases knowledge and skills through work experience and academic training. As an intern, you will be assigned to a senior engineer or group of engineers. You will be assigned tasks designed to familiarize you with different aspects of the occupation. Tasks will vary depending on the senior engineer's current workload, but may include the following: Assist senior engineers who are performing engineering or scientific work involving research, experimentation, survey, design, development, investigation, computation, standardization testing, etc. Identify and report errors, inconsistencies, and other deficiencies in technical data encountered in assignments. Make calculations for noncomplex electrical and mechanical systems. Assemble data, such as plans, outline specifications and design analysis.   

Positions are open to current students pursuing a qualifying degree or certificate in an accredited high school, college (including 4-year colleges/universities, community colleges, and junior colleges); professional, technical, vocational, and trade school; advanced degree programs; or other qualifying educational institution on at least a half-time basis (as defined by the institution in which the student is enrolled). Short-term training programs (e.g., several two-week programs completed) are not considered an academic course of study.

Internship for current students in good standing at an accredited education. 

For this internship, you must be able to work in Huntsville, AL (Redstone Arsenal)  full-time or part-time and year-round.

This intern position is designed to prepare a Student Trainee for employment after graduation as an Engineer, Interns will be assigned tasks designed to increase familiarity with the target occupation in a real-world work environment.

This opportunity follows a standard promotional path:

1. Internship selection will be made at the GS-03/04 grade levels.
2. Within 120 days after completion of Internship requirements, you may be eligible for conversion to the entry-level for the target occupation. Entry level for these positions are typically at the GS-05/GS-07 level. The actual grade level at the time of conversion depends on academic achievement and other factors.
3. The full performance level of this position is GS-13/NH-03.
4. Progression from the entry-level to the full performance level for this occupation will depend on successful completion of all requirements for promotion. Promotions may be considered after a year at each grade level but are not guaranteed to occur on a specific time schedule.
   To qualify for an Internship as a GS-03, students must have completed one full academic year of post-high school study.
   To qualify for an Internship as a GS-04, students must have completed two full academic years of post-high school study or have an associate's degree.
   For qualification purposes, an academic year is computed as follows:
   At the undergraduate level, successfully completed education that has not led to possession of a degree is credited based on its relationship to 120 semester hours or 180 quarter hours. For example, 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours is comparable to 1 year of undergraduate education. Four years of progressive study or 120 semester hours meets the degree requirements. Additional credit cannot be given for duplicate course work.
   For study at a business or technical school, 36 weeks of study (20+ classroom hours per week) is comparable to 1 academic year above high school.
   An academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 academic year of full-time study. This determination is made based on normal course loads for a full year of study in the graduate program. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.
   When academic credit is expressed in contract months, units, or other terms that differ from conventional semester or quarter hours, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide an interpretation of such credits from the appropriate institution in order to equate them to the semester or quarter hours specified in the standard.
   NOTE: If your college, vocational, trade, technical or high schools' definition of "academic year" differs from above, you must submit proof of this difference (e.g., copy of course catalog that defines an academic year). Absent this documentation, you will screened for academic qualifications based on the academic hours as defined in the bullets above.
   NOTE: In order to verify eligibility and minimum qualifications, transcripts and/or enrollment verification must include name of student, name of institution, most current GPA, credit hours earned, and current half/full time enrollment.
   For this internship, you must be a current student majoring in: Engineering, Mathematics or Statistics.
   This occupation has specific educational requirements for entry and applicants must show evidence that their planned academic program will meet those requirements (i.e. transcript reflecting enrollment in applicable programs). Students who graduate without meeting those requirements may not be converted to the target position and could be separated from federal service. Educational requirements for conversion to the target position are:
   Statistician:
   Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing.
   or
   Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.
   Mathematician:
   Degree: mathematics; or the equivalent of a major that included at least 24 semester hours in mathematics.
   or
   Combination of education and experience -- courses equivalent to a major in mathematics (including at least 24 semester hours in mathematics), as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
   The total course work in either A or B above must have included differential and integral calculus and, in addition, four advanced mathematics courses requiring calculus or equivalent mathematics courses as a prerequisite.

Education
Engineer:
A. Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); OR (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.
OR
B. Combination of Education and Experience: College-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:1. Professional registration or licensure - Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
2. Written Test - Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination, or any other written test required for professional registration, by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico.
3. Specified academic courses - Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in A above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program.
4. Related curriculum - Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions.
This is a student internship opportunity. Your transcripts are a required part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency in the following areas:
• Computer Skills
• General Engineering
• Manages and Organizes Information
• Written Communication