Program Support Assistant (OA)

Summary

This position is located at the Edward Hines, Jr VA Hospital, Hines, IL - a Level 1a Complexity and is organizationally aligned to the Education Service. The purpose of this position is to serve as the focal point for administrative activities for Education Service and participates actively in the management of the Education Service office by performing a wide range of administrative, analytical, and budgeting functions.

Duties

Provides administrative support to the assigned service staff members by processing Personnel Actions, travel requests, time and leave reports, creating joint policy documents, integrating data with other Services, maintaining equipment log, and assisting with preparation of budgets for various Education Service fund control points. Maintains an accurate record of tasks and action items, tracks completion, and follows up with responsible parties to fulfill requests within the incumbent's wide range of responsibility, including but not limited to budget, personnel, travel, correspondents, timekeeping, supplies, and equipment. Prepares agendas, attends, and transcribes minutes for meetings. Maintains calendars, schedules appointments and meetings; makes necessary arrangements for conferences and meetings including reserving conference space and notifying conferees, having appropriate training materials, tools, supplies, etc., available. Distributes mail, copies materials, collects and collates information and distributes documents as requested. Files and maintains office files for Education Service. Maintains updates and is generally responsible for equipment inventory tracking log for respective area. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday (07:30AM - 4:00PM). Overlap to other tours as needed for customer service needs. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant (OA)/PD11191A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/06/2026. 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-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of office administration, systems development, regulations, policies, secretarial/clerical and administrative/program concepts, practices to complete assignments and to recommend changes to existing procedures. Ability to interpret and apply guidelines involving program and administrative processes. Skill in planning and development of complex projects, assessment of training, specifications of equipment and other operational details related to large scale projects, oral and written communication. Working knowledge of the work processes and procedures of an administrative field (e.g., office administration, travel, agreements, human resources). Skill in typing, word processing, filing, referring phone calls and visitors, etc., and program work of a more varied and substantive nature (e.g., preparing special reports based on gathering and interpreting information from the staff and the files, performing office automation duties which require a variety of software and differing methods and approaches, and setting up meetings and conferences). Working knowledge of scheduling software. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Attention to Detail Communication Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Manages and Organizes Information Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Technology Application 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 involves frequent, walking, standing, bending, carrying of items like paper, books, equipment, boxes etc., transferring materials on/off of carts, and pushing carts. This position requires potentially long periods of continued walking, standing, and sitting. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.