Limitations of NCE

Most jobs in the Federal government are considered part of the competitive service (also referred to as employees with “status”). There are civil service laws established by Congress and regulations established by the Office of Personnel Management that govern the competitive service hiring process.

There are a smaller number of jobs that are noncompetitive (not part of the competitive service) and are excepted from many civil service laws and regulations. The Peace Corps Act requires that all Peace Corps direct hire employees (excluding Experts) are appointed based on the Foreign Service Act as non-career members of the Foreign Service. As such, the Peace Corps is an excepted (or noncompetitive) service agency.

The main thing to understand is that employment in the excepted service does not establish eligibility to apply for positions in the competitive service. If a federal job is only open to competitive service employees, excepted service employees cannot apply. However, NCE is the mechanism that can open this hiring process to Peace Corps employees and volunteers who have acquired NCE.