PM&C Vacation Employment Program

Tertiary education

Applicants should be in their penultimate or final year of study, or have graduated within the last year, with a bachelor's or more advanced degree and a credit average or higher. Studies may be in any discipline, including (but not limited to):

• Economics/Commerce
• STEM
• Law
• Public policy
• Social sciences.

Citizenship

Under section 22(8) of the Public Service Act 1999, employees must be Australian citizens to be employed in the APS unless the Agency Head has agreed otherwise in writing.

To be eligible for this position, you should be an Australian citizen at the closing date of application. This is to reduce potential delays in finalising outcomes for vacancies and to reduce the risk of ineligible employees being considered for roles they are not able to be employed in. There may be some exceptional circumstances where non-citizens may apply, such as an individual who will have their Australian citizenship confirmed in the days or weeks preceding the closing date of application but before a formal employment offer is made. In these circumstances the candidate should liaise with the contact officer of the vacancy to discuss their individual circumstances and confirm whether their application can be accepted.

Pre-employment checks

The successful candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a Baseline Vetting (Protected) level security clearance or hold a current security clearance of an appropriate level. The successful candidate will be assessed through our pre-employment screening checks, such as an Australian Criminal History Check, and will normally be subject to a six-month probation period if new to the APS or has not yet completed their probation period elsewhere in the APS.

The quality of your résumé creates the vital first impression we have of you. As a minimum, you should ensure that you include the following elements:

• Personal details: Your name, contact email address and phone number.
• Education and qualifications: Details of education and qualifications that relate to the job you are applying for.
• Skills and work experience: Relevant work experience and the main responsibilities and achievements. Organise your employment history in chronological order, starting with the most recent, and indicate actual dates of employment.
• Other relevant professional experience: If relevant, briefly mention any extra-curricular activities, interests or volunteer and community work and highlight what you gained from that experience and how it may apply at PM&C.

Your resume should be 2 to 3 pages at most. Use an easy-to-read font and a simple format.

Your one-page pitch is a chance to tell us why you are the right person for the job and what you will bring to the role. We want to know why you want to work at PM&C, why you are interested in the role, how you can add value to the role, and how your skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications are applicable. In a nutshell – why should we hire you?

Try not to duplicate information that can already be found in your resume, but do highlight any specific examples or achievements that will demonstrate your ability to perform the role. We also encourage you to consider the PM&C Corporate Plan 2022-26 and PM&C Performance Model when drafting your response so that you get a sense of PM&C's role and what behaviours and characteristics are required at each classification level at PM&C.

Useful tools to help you write your one-page pitch and understand the APS can be found at the Australian Public Service Commission Cracking the code website.

Your application will be assessed on your ability to demonstrate that you can perform the role, as described in the job advertisement and in line with the relevant classification level. If your application is shortlisted you will be progressed to a second phase of assessment. We may use a variety of techniques to assess candidates. This may include one or more of the following:

• phone, face-to-face and video interviews (formal and informal)
• work sample tests

Your referees may also be contacted at any stage of the assessment process to validate your claims. We ask for a current supervisor wherever possible as your primary referee, and will also accept character references. We encourage you to advise them you have applied for a role at PM&C to avoid surprises.

In line with the APS Employment Principles in section 10A of the Public Service Act 1999, the APS makes decisions relating to engagement and promotion based on merit. A decision to engage or promote a person is based on merit if:

• all eligible members of the community are given a reasonable opportunity to apply
• an assessment is made of the relative suitability of candidates, using a competitive selection process
• the assessment is based on the relationship between the candidates' work-related qualities and the qualities genuinely required to perform the relevant duties
• the assessment focuses on the relative capacity of candidates to achieve outcomes related to the relevant duties

If you are selected as a successful candidate – you will be contacted with a job offer and to discuss things such as salary, security clearances and start date, flexible work arrangements and relocation assistance (this will be considered for those with serious barriers to participation) as well as being asked to complete any relevant new starter paperwork.

If you are not offered a role – it doesn't mean that it was determined that you can't do the job, it just means that someone else demonstrated that they have stronger claims at this time. You can ask for feedback to help you improve your chances in the future.

In some cases, when you are notified that you didn't get the job you may be placed in a merit pool. This is great news as it means that you may be considered for similar roles in the department or APS as they become available over the next 18 months from when the date the job was advertised.

As part of the online application form, within the Workplace Diversity section, you can provide details about what reasonable adjustments you may need. Please keep in touch with the Contact Officer throughout each phase for any additional or emerging needs for reasonable adjustment. Where possible, these adjustments will be met. Reasonable adjustments are not limited to people with disability, for example reasonable adjustments may be made for anybody experiencing or recovering from illness or injury and people affected by family and domestic violence. If you are offered a role at PM&C, we will work with you to make reasonable adjustments so that you can perform at your best at work.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department) is collecting your personal information (name and email address) to notify you when applications for the Department's Vacation Employment Program 2023–24 open.

Only the program coordinators will access the information you provide via email. Providing your name and email address is voluntary. If you choose not to send an email, we will be unable to notify you when applications for the PM&C Vacation Employment Program 2023–24 have opened. Whether you send or do not send an email requesting to be notified when applications open will have no impact in the recruitment process.

The Department will not provide the information collected from you to anyone else outside the Department unless you have given consent for us to do this, or we are authorised or required to do so by law.

The privacy and security of your personal information is important to us, and is protected by law. The Department's Privacy Policy explains how the Department handles and protects the information provided by you. Our Privacy Policy also explains how you can request access to or correct the personal information we hold about you, and who to contact if you have a privacy enquiry or complaint. If you require a copy of our Privacy Policy contact the Privacy Officer at privacy@pmc.gov.au

Flexible work is a broad term used to describe a variety of different arrangements about how, when and where work is performed. PM&C supports mutually beneficial flexible work arrangements that suit operational requirements.

Arrangements may be consistent and regular, such as part time work, working from home a couple of days each week; or more ad hoc, such as varying work attendance times or occasional home based work.

Consideration is given to all flexible work requests. Approval is not limited to an employee's classification level or caring responsibilities.