The abbreviation, KSA stands for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities, which are the fundamental qualities required for applying any job openings in the United States of America. Besides the resume, these three qualities determine the selection in the final round in case many a candidate qualifies for a job.
KSAs which are a must for the efficient performance of a position contained on the announcement of each job vacancy. The Office of Personal Management, in 2009, asked Federal agencies that they should no longer ask the job applicants to fill out the questionnaires for which they took a year to eliminate them.
KSAs are the concise and concentrated essays comprising one’s education, work history, volunteer and achievements which apparently qualify one to perform the responsibilities of the position being applied for. The KSA statements are essential for applying for most of the federal, state and city government jobs because they are largely considered as the standard to assess the abilities of the fittest applicant in respect of the required ability to perform the accountability of the job. So, most recruitment officials of the government look for the concise and transparent KSA emphasising the results or achievements obtained in the previous work.
KSA statements are known by many terms in different agencies such as ‘evaluation factor’, ‘knowledge, abilities, skills and other characteristics’, ‘rating factors’, ‘quality ranking factors’, and ‘job elements’. Every agency has its own rules and regulations, but in most cases the KSAs must be limited by a half to a half and one page. The name is valueless, but the standard and length of the content influences.
The United States (US) Office of Personnel Management defines KSAs as: ‘Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)—the attributes required to perform a job and are generally demonstrated through qualifying service, education, or training.
• Knowledge: It is a body of information applied directly to the performance of a function.
• Skill: It is an observable competence to perform a learned psychomotor act.
• Ability: It is competence to perform an observable behaviour or a behaviour that results in an observable product.’
On the basis of the score-scale ranges from 1–100, job applicants essays must score above 70 which determines the qualification for the position applied for. The means of gaining high score is to answer the KSA questions with reference to the previous employment or training that demonstrates your experience and knowledge of handling the responsibilities you undertook. Moreover, a Federal Resume along with KSA statements is a must to apply for the positions in the federal government.