Chapter 6: Learning and development

Abbreviations

A list of the abbreviations used in this report is available in the Glossary

Learning and development can be viewed from the perspective of building organisational capability and in the context of employee engagement.¹ Agencies need to consider learning and development as an essential part of their strategic business and workforce planning processes and align learning and development activities to the business outcomes of the agency. Planning for learning and development requires the same vigour and attention as any other management task.

A strategic approach to learning and development opportunities is essential in maintaining and building the capability of employees to meet the increasingly complex challenges of the 21st century. Well managed, learning and development can deliver the right people with the right skills at the right time to enable agencies to deliver government objectives and outcomes into the future. This approach is even more important in a tight labour market, where we can expect to see employees move in and out of the APS with greater frequency, and where employees may be promoted to higher positions before they have had the opportunity to build their capability through experience on-the-job.

During 2006, the Commission, on behalf of the Public Service Commissioners’ Conference, drew together views across jurisdictions and from relevant literature on the early detection of performance issues within agencies. A range of indicators relevant to learning and development was identified as impacting on agency performance, including the level of agency investment in learning and development, and the level of take-up of learning and development opportunities within an organisation. Conversely, the failure to provide, or the failure of employees to take up, learning and development related to business needs was viewed as one indicator of an underperforming agency.

From the perspective of employees, their access to learning and development opportunities affects how they see their role and their general satisfaction with working in a particular agency. Access to learning and development can significantly influence how employees engage with their agency, which is increasingly important as agencies face competition to recruit and retain employees and to increase employee productivity.

Agencies have focused strongly on learning and development in 2005–06. For example:

Centrelink has delivered a major training programme for its employees in the context of the implementation of the Welfare to Work reforms
DCITA has implemented a school leavers’ programme which includes internal and external training and development
Defence has provided 14,000 places for its employees on financial training courses
DIMA has developed a College of Immigration, delivering consistent training to DIMA employees
in response to the outcomes of its staff survey, PM&C provided increased funding for professional development.

The Commission, which has a statutory role to coordinate and support learning and development inthe APS,² both complements agencies’ internal learning and development activities and provides an APS-wide focus. The Commission provides a comprehensive series of learning and development programmes specifically designed to build the capability of employees at all classifications across the APS.

During 2005–06, there has been considerable refocusing and redevelopment of these programmes to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the current and future APS. This includes the expansion of the Integrated Leadership System (ILS) to APS 1–6 classifications, allowing for the same clear pathway progression as is currently available to EL and SES employees.

The Commission also maintains a panel of leadership, learning and development consultancy firms which are able to deliver to agencies a range of development services targeted to their needs, and provides input into these programmes.

Many of the changes to the Commission’s programmes have focused on issues related to leadership and whole of government. These are discussed further in Chapter 7 and Chapter 10. The Commission also works closely with ANZSOG and APS agencies to ensure that ANZSOG teaching programmes meet the needs of the APS by building leadership capability and skills sets. The ANZSOG programmes are also discussed in more detail in Chapter 7.

The focus on learning and development in Australia is consistent with a strong focus across international jurisdictions. For example, in the UK, formal qualifications for civil servants have been, or are being, established in the areas of emergency planning and leadership and management development. In both the UK and the USA there has been a focus on improving the capability of information technology professionals. Canada has established a new career-long public service learning and development initiative. In both the USA and NZ there has been a focus on developing the capacity of potential graduate applicants, with the USA establishing a programme to develop talented graduates for Federal public service careers and NZ running an internship programme for honours or postgraduate students.

This chapter relies on information from the employee survey, including in relation to how employees’ learning and development needs are documented and identified and employees’ views on their access to, their satisfaction with, and the effectiveness of, learning and development. This year, the agency survey concentrated on issues of leadership development. These results are discussed in Chapter 7.

In this chapter

Chapter 6: Learning and development	PDF	Word	Excel
Learning and development
Identification of development needs and access to learning and development
Table 6.1: Satisfaction with access to learning and development opportunities by type of work undertaken, 2005–06
Amount of off-the-job learning and development
Effectiveness of learning and development in improving performance
Priority development areas
Table 6.2: Priority for skills development, 2005–06
Key chapter findings

Learning and development as discussed in this chapter refers to learning activities on-the-job as well as more formal off -the-job activities. Seminars, conferences, classroom training courses, leadership programmes, academic study, and in-house programmes are all included.
The Australian Public Service Commissioner is required to ‘coordinate and support APS-wide training and career development opportunities in the APS’ (s.41(1)(i) of the Public Service Act 1999).