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The Graduate Development Program in the Department of Innovation is a great way to start your career in the Australian Public Service. The 10-month program is based in Canberra and will commence in early February 2011.
Workplace Rotations
During the program, graduates will undertake three work placements of three months duration each, in different areas of this very diverse Department. We will select your first placement for you, based on your skills and qualifications. Then you select your second and third placements yourself. This gives you a great opportunity to seek out areas of the department that you may have a particular interest in or maybe to try something completely different.
In your work placements, you may get the opportunity to liaise directly with industry, prepare ministerial briefing material, develop industry policies, help out with delivering programs to businesses and much, much more!
Training
During the program, graduates also do three blocks of off-the-job training, designed to give you the skills you need to meet the challenges of working in the Public Sector.
The training program for our 2011 Graduates will include workshops on:
- Leading and working in high performance teams
- Contract Development and Management
- Understanding your Accountabilities as a Public Servant
- Government and the Australian Public Service
- Writing in the Australian Public Service and the Department
- Policy Development
- Project Planning and Management
- Career Planning
- Presentation Skills
Major Project
Department of Innovation graduates also work together over four months as a team on a major project, tackling a real-life industry policy issue. Working as a self-managed team, graduates undertake and manage the project from start to finish. This involves planning the project, scoping the issue, undertaking preliminary research and going out to industry and interviewing 40-50 firms. Once they have done their primary and secondary research, the graduates then work on distilling their findings before preparing a report to the Department of Innovation’s Executive with recommendations.
Our graduates consistently rate the major project as one of the most challenging, but rewarding, aspects of our Graduate Development Program!
Support Network
From the moment you accept an offer of a place on our Graduate Development Program, you will have a network of Department of Innovation people who are here to support you and answer any questions you might have.
First up, the Graduate Team will be there for you, right through the process from having your interview, to starting the program and all the way through your development year. Also, early on in the piece, you will be assigned a ‘buddy’, one of last year’s graduates who has recently completed the program and knows just what you are going through. They will be happy to share their experience with you as you go through the program.
When you join the Department of Innovation’s graduate program, you are part of a long tradition of graduates here, so there is a good chance there will be at least one ex-graduate in each of your workplace rotations. And, of course, other government departments recruit graduates, too, so you will soon have a social network that includes some (if not all!) of the 500 or so other graduates coming to Canberra each year.
End of the Program
While you are on the Graduate Development Program, you will be paid a commencement salary of $49,323 plus superannuation. Upon successful completion of the Program, you will be advanced to a salary of approximately $59,848 plus superannuation.
You will then immediately have the opportunity, through a merit-based selection process, to apply for promotion beyond that salary level.
Once you have completed the Graduate Development Program, you can also apply for support for further study to improve your professional skills and knowledge. At Innovation, we encourage our people to continue their personal and professional development.
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