V.I. Congressional Delegate Donna M. Christian-Christensen is paving the way to have more Virgin Islanders hired for federal positions in the territory.
She plans to set up a job fair and expand the federal agencies' student cooperative program where local high school students can work in federal agencies as summer employees or part time employees in hopes of obtaining future employment.
Another strategy is to place touch screen computer kiosks with federal employment information on St. Croix and provide a better location for the one currently on St. Thomas, Christensen said.
Christensen met Friday with representatives from the Office of Personnel Management for the Federal Government to discuss her concerns about several issues regarding the hiring and promotion of federal employees in the V.I. including, promotional practices of federal agencies, entry level job availability in the territory, and timely access to information on federal jobs.
Christensen requested a briefing by OPM on these issues after receiving numerous complaints over the years from Virgin Islanders about apparent roadblocks to entering the federal employment system.
The representatives provided Christensen with a breakdown of the number of federal employees in the territory, the number of employees in 1999 and the percentage of Virgin Islanders hired.
The release from Christensen's office did not provide those figures.
"It was a very productive meeting," said Christensen. "We discussed strategies to increase opportunities for locals who are interested in federal government service either locally or on the mainland."