Activity: Official Duty Time for Academic Training Outside of a Formal Program

Authority: 5 U.S.C. §§ 4103, 4105, 4107, and 4109; 5 C.F.R. 410.308

Responsible Office: Special Programs and Policy Branch, HQ Human Resources Management Division and Code 114.H/Headquarters Training Office, Goddard Space Flight Center

Effective Date: January 1, 2000

Applicability: All NASA Headquarters Civil Service Employees (except Schedule C and Office of Inspector General)

Introduction:
Training includes planned activities which support and improve individual and organizational performance and effectiveness, such as on-the-job-training, career development programs, professional development activities, or development assignments. This encompasses mission-related training that supports the Agency's strategic plan and performance objectives, improves an employee's current job performance, allows for expansion of an employee's current job or enables the employee to perform potentially needed duties outside the current job, meets organizational development needs, or retrains individuals to address skills obsolescence or skill shortages.

Definition:
This standard operating procedure is applicable to academic coursework outside of the formal competitive programs, such as the graduate study program and the continuing education program. An employee assigned to academic training during normal duties is on official duty for the period of the training and no charge is made to leave. Even if the employee pays for the training, no charge is made to leave if the training is authorized by the supervisor and approved by the Headquarters Training Officer at GSFC.

Agencies are permitted to train employees for other occupations based on organizational need and when vacancies in those occupations exist. Competitive procedures must be followed when selecting an employee for training that permits noncompetitive promotion after successful completion of the training. These competitive processes must be consistent with merit principles and EEO considerations.

Eligibility:
Generally, most competitive and excepted service permanent employees are eligible to participate in academic training appropriate to the employee’s present or projected assignments, provided the employee’s supervisor approves such training. Employees occupying excepted service positions that are of a confidential, policy determining, policy making or policy advocating character (such as political appointees, schedule C’s, PASI) are not eligible (see 5 U.S.C. § 4107(b)(3) attached.)

Criteria:
Employees are expected to attend class as scheduled even if classes are scheduled on a Government holiday. Neither premium pay, overtime, or compensatory time off for time spent in training or preparing for training outside regular work hours is granted. Employees are expected to provide their grades to the Headquarters Training Office. Students who do not successfully complete a course may not repeat the course on Government time or at Government expense. Approval to withdraw from a course without penalty must be requested by memorandum through the appropriate supervisor to the Headquarters Training Officer.

Procedures:
Employees may enroll in an academic training course on an individual basis in the following preferred sequence:

1. After duty hours – if the course is available after duty hours.

2. Change of Standard Shift – if the desired course is not available after regular duty hours, arrangements may be made with supervisory approval for the employee to change from a standard work schedule to an alternate work schedule.

3. During duty hours – if none of the above procedures is feasible, an employee may be permitted to attend a course during duty hours with the approval of the supervisor. Up to 4 hours per week per 3-4 credit course may be allocated for this purpose, not to exceed a total of 8 hours per week for all courses.

4. Exceptions to the above limitations may be made on a case by case basis. This exception requires the approval of the Director, Headquarters Human Resources Management Division.

Delegation of Authority:
The first level decision to approve/disapprove an employee’s request for academic training during duty hours rests with the immediate supervisor. As with all training, approvals must also be obtained from the code’s training contact and the Headquarters Training Officer at GSFC.

Documentation:
Training covered by this Standard Operating Procedure should be annotated on the Time and Attendance form as "excused absence," with the following statement in the "Remarks" section, "Excused absence granted for academic training outside of a formal program."

January 31, 2000