Your APS Career
Take charge of your career by exploring learning and development opportunities available to you.
Contents
A high-performing and future-ready APS workforce is vital to deliver the best outcomes for the Australian government and our community.
Take charge of your career by exploring learning and development opportunities available to you. Drive your success by developing your skills and growing a continuous learning mindset.
APS Career Pathfinder helps people explore APS careers, identify skills, access learning, and plan development. It also supports agencies with workforce planning, capability development and talent management through a skills-based approach.
Career Pathways delivers supported pathways for Australian Citizens into the Australian Government. You will find programs here that offer structured employment to begin your career in the public service.
The APS Jobs website serves as a central platform for exploring careers within the Australian Public Service (APS). It provides job search tools, highlights career pathways, and shares general information about working for the APS.
The APS Professions help build capability in critical disciplines where specialist skills are needed across the APS. By joining a profession, members can access professional communities, resources, networking opportunities, events, career opportunities and tailored learning and development.
The Integrated Leadership System (ILS) provides a common APS leadership framework, helping employees develop leadership skills, understand expectations, plan careers and build capability at all levels.
Work
Employee Value Proposition
The APS Data Profession Employee Value Proposition (EVP) highlights the purpose, impact and career opportunities of data roles in the APS, supporting workforce attraction, development and retention across government.
Make a difference on a national scale with a digital career in the Australian Public Service.
Teams and Roles
APS Career Pathfinder helps people explore APS careers, identify skills, access learning, and plan development. It also supports agencies with workforce planning, capability development and talent management through a skills-based approach.
The APS Jobs website serves as a central platform for exploring careers within the Australian Public Service (APS). It provides job search tools, highlights career pathways, and shares general information about working for the APS.
The APS Mobility Framework promotes temporary moves across agencies and sectors, helping employees build skills, expand networks, support priority work and strengthen a connected, agile One APS culture.
Data Job Role Personas provide the building blocks for identifying data capability requirements and career pathways for the data profession.
People
Networks and Communities
The Graduate Data Network (GDN) unites 1,000+ APS graduates across 40+ agencies to improve data use, build capability, drive collaboration, and support better public sector outcomes for Australians.
The APS HR Profession community connects HR practitioners across government to share knowledge, build capability, access professional development, and strengthen consistent, high-quality people management practices across the APS.
Resources
Frameworks and Standards
We use a capability model to help explain the different skills, knowledge and personal attributes that combine to make up someone's overall capability.
The Government’s APS Reform Agenda and Delivering for Australians highlighted the need to build an integrated strategic approach to workforce management. The need to strengthen workforce planning capability to plan and develop the capabilities the APS needs for the future is becoming increasingly more critical.
The strategy establishes the first whole-of-enterprise approach to strategic workforce management, enabling effective delivery for the government and Australian communities.
The Australian Government commissioned Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) to undertake a capacity study on the workforce needs for Australia’s transition to a clean energy economy. Learn more about how partnering with stakeholders and specialists has assisted them and what it could mean for your similar endeavours.
The Integrated Leadership System (ILS) provides a common APS leadership framework, helping employees develop leadership skills, understand expectations, plan careers and build capability at all levels.
Legislation provides a framework for acting with integrity. This includes the Public Service Act 1999, Public Service Regulations 1999 and Australian Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 2022.
Tools and templates
Career Pathways delivers supported pathways for Australian Citizens into the Australian Government. You will find programs here that offer structured employment to begin your career in the public service.
These 'bite sized brain hacks' offer coaching in improving how you learn. This episode includes 3 strategies you can apply to fall in love with learning and build your curiosity.
Career growth in the APS comes from curiosity and self-reflection. Managers should encourage skill development and regular reflection to boost motivation, feedback, and professional growth within teams.
Building a learning culture boosts adaptability, resilience, and readiness. This guide helps supervisors make learning a team habit for growth and success.
Inspire and support a continuous learning culture with these Continuous Learning conversation prompts.
It’s important to not only decide what skills and knowledge you want to develop, but also how you’re going to learn them. Use this downloadable development planning template to identify the learning experiences you’ll use to develop your skills and knowledge.
This chart highlights continuous learning experiences that are the most available to APS people. It plots the frequency and distance from work for each experience.
A learning culture means everyone learns continuously through daily work, collaboration, and accessible resources. It requires shared responsibility, supportive leaders, and aligns learning to organisational goals.
Reflection is an important source of self-development and improvement and enhances your continuous learning experiences. It makes the learning that happens at work more productive because you are actively recalling and recognising what you learned.
Interactive leadership simulation where managers make decisions to build a learning culture while maintaining service delivery, then reflect on impacts, outcomes and future improvement strategies.
This series covers tools to respond to challenges, stresses, conflict and more at work. This episode explores the basics of Action Learning for digital courses and coaching.
This resource features 6 practical strategies to make your learning have a lasting impact on your performance.
These principles will develop a continuous learning culture to support APS people, managers and leaders to take up their responsibility for learning.
Any APS or Parliamentary Service employee (ongoing, non-ongoing or casual) may apply for an independent review of an action or decision that affects their employment. (subject to certain exceptions).
The APS Continuous Learning Model promotes learning through work, people, courses and resources, helping employees build capability, improve performance and adapt to changing roles and priorities.
This podcast episode highlights changes, developments and insights across the Learning and Development profession. Although aimed at L&D practitioners, it also offers insights and ideas for individual learning.
Team meetings are key learning opportunities. Effective time management in these settings boosts engagement and supports a continuous learning culture. This fact sheet offers practical guidance.
Courses
APSLearn
APS Unlocked brings together new and returning members of the APS to engage with experienced APS leaders and practitioners, who will share essential information and tips for a successful and productive career in the APS.
The Coaching for Women in Data and Digital (C4WID) Program focuses on group coaching to help you develop leadership skills in data and digital related roles within the public sector. The program will help you reflect on your strengths, values and career goals, and dedicate time to professional growth in a supportive context.
Interactive course on editing and proofing written text. It includes writing skills, editing and proofing methods. You will be able to enhance documents for correctness and clarity.
All workplaces use communication and our overall job effectiveness is strongly influenced by how well we communicate. Learn how to present information clearly, concisely and in a compelling manner.
APS employees who produce routine correspondence, such as emails and letters. Suitable for improving ability to logically sequence information, use appropriate styles and readability.
This course is designed for those who produce documents involving analysis or evidence-based argument. It is suitable for all APS and executive levels who need to improve their analytical writing.
Participants learn how to produce documents which are accurate, clear and consistent with Government style requirements.
Footprints is a framework that supports APS employees to continually increase and enhance their cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.
This course assists those on selection committees to conduct effective selection processes. Examine relevant legislation and principles guiding staff selection and retention to get the best candidate.
The APS job application process. Practical exercises help participants write applications and perform well in selection activities and interviews.
This is a practical and participative course to build confidence in giving presentations. Examine the learning techniques, structures and elements that create and deliver good presentations.
This course covers the processes for writing reports that adhere to the Commonwealth writing style. Learn to produce documents that have clear scope, are organised and interpret information well.
Understand the work level standards, capability requirements and behavioural expectations at the APS 5 level detailed in the APS Work Level Standards and the APS Integrated Leadership System.
Understand the capability requirements and behavioural expectations at of APS 6 level. Gain clarity of the APS Work Level Standards and the APS Integrated Leadership System.
Understand the critical role requirements of EL 1's through the APS Work Level Standards and capabilities and behaviours identified in the APS Integrated Leadership System.
Understand the broad role requirements of EL 2s through the APS Work Level Standards and deepen your understanding of the capabilities and behaviours required.
Programs
ACCELERATE is a development program for training, presentation and facilitation skills.
If your agency has relevant resources that you wish to share on the Your APS Career page, please contact the APS Academy via the Contact Us webform.
What's New
Upcoming Events / Course - Sessions
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