Skill Certification at the Veterans Benefits Administration

In its 1997 Blueprint for Change, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, set a goal of certifying its claims personnel to establish employees' proficiency. VBA offers intensive and thorough training to improve the performance of its employees. To pass a skills certification test an employee must have an extremely strong knowledge of all reference materials used on the job, knowledge of computer information systems, codes, and how work flows through the system, as well as some level of substantive knowledge of medical and legal requirements to receive compensation and pension. VBA's skills certification programs include the Veteran Service Representative (VSR) position, the Ratings VSR position, and the Pension Maintenance Center (PMC) VSR.

GS-10 candidates who are successful in passing the certification test are promoted to the GS-11 grade; GS-11s who pass receive a bonus. We are assisting VBA in developing legally defensible tests, administering them, and providing individual and aggregate feedback to VBA. We conducted a criterion-related validation of the VSR test in 2004. The program is now in maintenance phase, which requires maintenance of the item bank (developing new items and reviewing item performance over time) and regular test administration. The RVSR and PMC tests are currently in development.