IBM Alliance Aims To Match Private Sector With Government CareersIBM Alliance Aims To Match Private Sector With Government Careers

Two years ago, IBM launched a voluntary program to help employees become math and science teachers. Now, the company has a pilot program to assist its workers -- and eventually other companies' workers -- transition into new government careers.

On Thursday, IBM and the Partnership for Public Service, an organization focused on "revitalizing" the federal government, launched a pilot program to help assist IBM-employed Baby Boomers into starting new careers in the federal government. Those Big Blue Boomers would help replace the nearly 500,000 other Boomers who are expected to retire from their government jobs over the next five years. Eventually, the goal is to have other companies participate in the program as well.

The new FedExperience Transitions to Government program aims to attract "tech-savvy" individuals and business leaders into filling federal jobs that will be left vacant in the near future, says Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service. The U.S. Department of Treasury will be the first agency participating in the program, but other federal agencies are expected to join later.

The treasury department has about 14,000 "mission-critical" jobs that will be vacant in the next two years, including IRS agents and tax examiners. IT positions are also among those critical jobs that need to be filled. The program provides support services to private sector workers who are nearing retirement but are not ready nor want to retire yet, and are interested in starting new careers "for public good," says Stier.

"We see barriers to getting talent to the government. There's a lack of information, people don't know about the job opportunities and it's a cumbersome process to getting in" to the government workforce, he says. The aim is match those individuals' skills and experience for new federal government jobs.

"We don't expect to solve all the problems in the world, but if a number of other companies partnered, this would be an improvement" over the current situation the government faces, says Stanley Litow, IBM VP for corporate citizenship and corporate affairs.

IBM is also trying to help address the shortage of math and science teachers in grades K to 12 in the U.S. through a similar transitions program it launched two years ago, he says. That program provides tuition assistance to IBM employees making a career shift into math and science teaching careers. To date, about 100 employees have participated in that program, says Litow.