Training & Personal Development at Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR)

Needs more cultural training and funding for other agencies' training using department funding rather than team funding which is restrictive and subject to approval

I am very pleased with the training I've received so far. I have been supported to undertake several formal training programs in which I have gained the skills to prepare for and participate in various government processes including senate estimates and the legislation process. Regarding informal training, in my 2 graduation rotations I have been supervised by very competent staff who have been able to assist me and provide valuable feedback on my work. I have gained very valuable skills in communication, particularly government writing, stakeholder engagement and working collaboratively with project teams across the group.

Graduate Certificate in Public Administeration

University of Canberra's grad cert in public administration was fantastic!

Would be less stressful if expectations were more defined.

We have a Graduate Certificate in Public Administration that we are required to complete as part of our Graduate Program, which I've found to be very valuable in developing knowledge and skills essential for working in the APS.

Most of my training has been on the job and informal. I've picked up skills such as interpreting employment data and presenting these results into briefings and reports. I've had informal training around data and how to use data processing applications such as R. The department funded a formal certificate in public policy. This gave the graduates an opportunity to learn about public policy, public administration, the finance of government and managing leadership and change. There were a variety of lecturers, APS staff and academics who presented and taught the grad cohort.

Lots of support to pursue training programs and extra qualifications. The internal eLearn hub modules are mostly unhelpful. There is very little induction training into the processes that we need to follow in our teams or across the organisation, but this can differ dramatically from team to team.