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About the program
Ready to make a real impact? Join our National Graduate Program and help us simplify government services, so people can get on with their lives. We deliver essential health, social and welfare services through Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support.
We’re looking for innovative graduates who can revolutionise the way we work. Our mission is to give our customers simple, helpful, respectful and transparent experiences.
We’ll help you grow your expertise through diverse opportunities and start your career in the Australian Public Service (APS).
Salary
We offer 2 pay points for graduates, depending on your qualification level.
If you’ve completed an undergraduate degree, your salary will be $71,170. Undergraduate degrees are level 7 qualifications according to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).
If you’ve completed a double degree or a higher qualification, your salary will be $79,322. These qualifications are level 8 or above according to the AQF.
You can read about the framework on the Australian Qualifications Framework website.
After completing the program, you’ll advance to the base salary of an APS5 classification in your job stream. Read more in our Enterprise Agreement.
Streams
We have 9 streams in our programs you can choose from. Most streams last 10 months, but the legal stream takes 18 months.
Generalist stream
Your degree is valuable to us, even if it doesn’t align with a specific specialist stream. Our generalist stream is good for you if:
- you want to try different areas
- your degree isn’t in a specialist stream.
To apply for the generalist and service delivery streams, any eligible degree opens the door.
Specialist streams
Our specialist streams let you focus your career in a specific area, so you can deep dive into your chosen field. You can choose from the following streams:
To apply for most specialist streams, you need a degree in that area.
Stream rotations
Some streams have more than one rotation, allowing you to broaden your skillset and knowledge from different parts of the agency.
If your stream has additional rotations, you can let us know which business area in your stream excites you the most. Although we can’t guarantee it, we’ll do our best to make it happen.
Read more about who we’re looking for.
Development opportunities
We provide training and development opportunities to help you grow and shape your career.
In our program, you’ll take part in:
- Australian Public Service Commission events
- graduate and internal events
- presentations to our CEO and senior executive staff (SES)
- capability masterclasses.
You’ll also get:
- first-hand experience in our service delivery environments to see how Australians access government services
- training specific to your work area.
These activities will help you:
- get exposure to our business
- strengthen your networking skills
- develop and enhance your career opportunities
- broaden your understanding of the APS.
Service delivery experience
In the service delivery part of the program, you’ll see how your work makes a positive difference to the lives of Australians.
You’ll spend 6 weeks in our service delivery environment and learn first-hand how Australians access our government services. This experience is unique to our graduate program.
During this placement, you’ll:
- help customers connect with and use digital services
- troubleshoot issues
- help customers with our website
- enable customers to complete transactions.
You’ll start with 2 weeks of training. In this time you’ll move to a smart centre, where you’ll work with other graduates from your cohort and get support from local staff.
After this placement, you’ll return to your first rotation.
Due to the nature of the day-to-day work completed by social workers, they won’t be included in this experience.
Community OutReach Experience
You can apply for the Community OutReach Experience (CORE). This placement enables you to help people in remote or metropolitan communities. It’s a unique opportunity to take part in a life-changing experience. In this placement, you‘ll:
- support our most vulnerable and remote communities
- understand the issues faced by customers in these communities
- learn about the complexities of service delivery in these areas
- discover the important work done by our community engagement officers, multicultural service officers, Indigenous service officers, financial service officers, aged care service officers and others.
If selected, you’ll spend up to 3 months helping in either a remote (Alice Springs, Broome or Darwin) or metropolitan area (Melbourne or Sydney).
For the remote placements, you’ll:
- travel to remote communities to provide customer support services
- complete remote servicing trips by four-wheel drive (you’ll need to have a full driver’s licence) or light aircraft
- work on complex claims processing in local service centres.
For the metropolitan placements, you’ll:
- work in teams providing services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities
- work in high-volume service centres, learning from service officers and specialist staff
- provide services to customers in community hubs
- complete community outreach in CALD communities.
Executive office placements
You can apply for a 3-month placement in an Executive office.
In this placement, you’ll support the executive staff by preparing and reviewing information packs, drafting meeting documents, and helping to write operational reports and cabinet submissions.
Support, buddies and a senior executive mentor
A dedicated Entry Level Program coordinator will provide tailored support to you throughout the program.
Before you start, we’ll connect you with a buddy who’s completed the National Graduate program. They’ll help you settle into our agency and the APS.
We’ll also team you up with an executive mentor, who’ll support you in your career and personal goals.
Employment standards
As a graduate, you’ll need to meet employment standards, including probation and regular performance reviews. Don’t worry, we’ll support you every step of the way.