The WRP is a recruitment program that connects college students and recent graduates with disabilities to career development and potential employment opportunities. Through participating colleges and universities, the WRP creates a database for federal employers nationwide to find qualified college students and recent graduates with disabilities who are eager to demonstrate their abilities in the workplace through internships or permanent jobs. Candidates represent all majors and range from college freshmen to graduate and law students. Information from these candidates is compiled in a searchable database that is available to federal Human Resources Specialists, Equal Employment Opportunity Specialists, and other federal employees and hiring officials.
Every year, WRP staff engage with more than 400 colleges and universities to participate in the WRP recruitment process. WRP School Coordinators at these schools conduct outreach to eligible students and encourage them to apply. School Coordinators must be college staff, usually from the career or disability services office, and serve as the college’s primary point of contact for the program.
To be eligible to register, candidates must be current, degree-seeking undergraduate or graduate students with a disability or have graduated within two and a half years of the release of the database each December. For the 2027 WRP database (for which applications will open in fall 2026), a candidate who graduated with a degree from postsecondary school on or after April 1, 2024 is eligible to participate. Candidates must be U.S. citizens, be attending or have graduated from a U.S.-accredited college or university and be eligible under the Schedule A Hiring Authority for persons with disabilities.
The agencies that hire from the WRP database vary from year to year. Here is a list of agencies that have searched for WRP candidates in the past. Federal agencies who employed WRP candidates include the Departments of Defense, Labor, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; the Social Security Administration; the Federal Housing Finance Agency; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Candidates have worked in more than 38 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and as civilian employees on military bases in Germany, Italy, and South Korea.
Candidates are not placed into jobs; they are applying to be part of a database of postsecondary students and recent graduates with disabilities that is made available to federal employers. Employers then reach out to candidates directly if they are interested in interviewing or hiring them for a job or internship. Candidates should be aware that the WRP is not a guarantee of employment and not everyone who participates in the WRP is contacted by employers.
While most WRP opportunities are paid, some agencies may reach out to current students about unpaid opportunities. In those cases, the candidate may be asked if they are interested in and able to complete the internship for school credit. As with all opportunities, the candidate is welcome to decline if they are not in a position to take an unpaid internship.
Candidates should consult with their WRP School Coordinator, most often located in career or disability services, to ask questions about the process or request a resume review. These offices have many resources to help candidates prepare their application.
If an individual’s college or university is not currently participating, they should provide the Flyers and Information for Interested WRP Schools to someone in their school’s career or disability services office and ask that staff member to reach out to wrp@dol.gov to learn how to register their school to participate.