What is the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP)?
The WRP is a recruitment program that connects students with disabilities to career development and potential employment opportunities. Through participating colleges and universities, WRP creates a database for federal and interested private-sector employers nationwide to find 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 students 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 in federal agencies.
How does the WRP work?
Every year, WRP staff engage with more than 400 colleges and universities to participate in the WRP recruitment process for the year. WRP School Coordinators at these schools conduct outreach to their eligible students and encourage them to apply to participate in the WRP. School Coordinators must be college staff are usually from the career or disability services office.
Who is eligible to participate?
To be eligible to register, candidates must be current, full-time, 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 2026 WRP database (for which applications will open in fall 2025), a candidate who graduated with a degree from a postsecondary school on or after April 1, 2023 would still be eligible to participate. Candidates must be U.S. citizens, must 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.
What agencies hire from the WRP Database?
The agencies that hire from the WRP database change and vary from year to year. Here is a list of agencies who have hired 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.
What sort of jobs will the candidates be assigned?
Candidates are not placed into jobs; they are simply applying to be part of a database of postsecondary students and recent graduates with disabilities that is made available to federal employers directly and to the private sector through a contractor. Employers will then reach out to candidates directly if they are interested in interviewing or hiring them for a specific position. Candidates should be aware that WRP is not a guarantee of employment and not everyone who participates in WRP is contacted by employers.
Are all WRP opportunities paid?
While most WRP opportunities are paid, please note that there are some cases and agencies who may reach out to current students about unpaid opportunities. In those cases, the candidate may be asked if they are interested and able to do the internship for school credit. Like with all opportunities, the candidate is welcome to decline if they are not in a position to take an unpaid internship position.
Where can candidates get more information about the WRP process?
Candidates should consult with their WRP School Coordinator in their Career Center or Disability Services Center to ask questions about the process, or ask for a resume review. The Career Center has many resources that will help prepare candidates for 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 at their school or alma mater’s career or disability services office and ask that staff person to reach out to wrp@dol.gov to learn about how to register their school to participate.