Appendix 6 ꟷ APS workforce planning
APS Centre of Excellence for Workforce Planning
The APS Centre of Excellence for Workforce Planning provides workforce planning capability uplift, guidance and analysis to human resources and workforce planning practitioners. This supports the development and implementation of evidence-based, strategically aligned workforce plans.
Since 2021, approximately 100 workforce planning documents have been received by the Centre from more than 50 agencies. In 2025, 11 agencies have submitted a workforce planning document for the first time, and 14 agencies have revised their workforce planning documents. This indicates that workforce planning functions are continuing to mature within APS agencies.
The Centre of Excellence is increasing engagement with agency leaders through its contributions to the Leadership Edge Program, managed by the APS Academy. The Centre of Excellence convenes a Large Agency Forum with workforce planning representatives from each of the five largest agencies in the APS to facilitate collaboration.
See also in this report
APS workforce – APS job families
Find out more
Australian Public Service Commission (2024) APS Workforce Planning, APSC website, accessed 10 September 2025.
APS workforce planning data
The information below is relevant for Australian Public Service workforce planning.
Table A 35 presents the number and proportion of APS agencies that identified critical skills shortages in 2024 and 2025.
Table A 35: Number and proportion of agencies that identified critical skills shortages
| Has your agency identified any critical skills shortages? | 2024 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of agencies | % | Number of agencies | % | |
| Yes | 83 | 88 | 78 | 86 |
| No | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
Source: 2024 and 2025 APS Agency Survey
Table A 36 presents the number and proportion of agencies that have identified specific critical skills shortages in 2024 and 2025.
Table A 36: Number and proportion of agencies with specific critical skills shortages
| What are the critical skills shortages that have been identified in your agency? | 2024 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of agencies | % | Number of agencies | % | |
| Digital and ICT | 67 | 81 | 66 | 85 |
| Data | 66 | 80 | 60 | 77 |
| Portfolio, program or project management (including implementation) | 32 | 39 | 36 | 46 |
| Procurement and contracting | 29 | 35 | 31 | 40 |
| People management | - | - | 30 | 38 |
| Change management | 29 | 35 | 26 | 33 |
| Leadership | - | - | 24 | 31 |
| Legal | 30 | 36 | 24 | 31 |
| Policy or strategic policy | 23 | 28 | 23 | 29 |
| Regulatory | 20 | 24 | 20 | 26 |
| Science and/or engineering | 13 | 16 | 17 | 22 |
| Accounting/finance | 19 | 23 | 15 | 19 |
| Cultural capability | 15 | 18 | 14 | 18 |
| Risk management | 17 | 20 | 14 | 18 |
| Communicating with influence | 12 | 14 | 13 | 17 |
| Information and knowledge management/records management | 12 | 14 | 13 | 17 |
| Collaboration and stakeholder management | 15 | 18 | 12 | 15 |
| Economics, including behavioural economics | 11 | 13 | 12 | 15 |
| Written or verbal communication | 14 | 17 | 11 | 14 |
| Evaluation | 10 | 12 | 10 | 13 |
| Green capabilities (e.g. sustainability, capabilities for net zero, environmental policy and planning) | 12 | 14 | 8 | 10 |
| Other | 17 | 20 | 22 | 28 |
Source: 2024 and 2025 APS Agency Survey
Note: Percentages are based on agencies that identified critical skills shortages (83 agencies in 2024; 78 agencies in 2025). As agencies could select more than one option, total percentages may exceed 100%. People management and leadership were included as options in 2025, but not in 2024.
Table A 37 presents the number and proportion of agencies that have identified specific digital and ICT skills as critical skills shortages in 2025.
Table A 37: Number and proportion of agencies with specific digital and ICT critical skills shortages
| What specific digital and ICT skills have been identified as critical skills shortages? | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of agencies | % | |
| Cyber security | 52 | 79 |
| Enterprise/technology architecture (including internal digital transformation) | 42 | 64 |
| Training and development of artificial intelligence (AI) models | 35 | 53 |
| Infrastructure engineering (including network and cloud engineering) | 29 | 44 |
| ICT/Digital project management | 28 | 42 |
| Data integration and migration | 26 | 39 |
| General digital literacy - use and apply correct technologies in day to day work | 26 | 39 |
| Development and coding/programming (including design, creation, testing and documentation of new and amended software components) | 25 | 38 |
| DevOps engineering | 24 | 36 |
| Systems analysis (including interaction design and IT system architecture) | 24 | 36 |
| Product or service management | 17 | 26 |
| Performance analysis and testing | 15 | 23 |
| Innovation/development of technological platforms for learning and development | 10 | 15 |
| Robotic engineering (including robotic process automation (RPA)) | 9 | 14 |
| SAP development | 7 | 11 |
| Digital channels/social media | 5 | 8 |
| Other | 15 | 23 |
Source: 2025 APS Agency Survey
Note: Percentages are based on agencies that identified digital and ICT as a critical skills shortage (66 agencies). As agencies could select more than one option, total percentages may exceed 100%.
Table A 38 presents the number and proportion of agencies that have identified specific data skills as critical skills shortages in 2025.
Table A 38: Number and proportion of agencies with specific data critical skills shortages
| What specific data skills have been identified as critical skills shortages? | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of agencies | % | |
| Data analysis | 47 | 78 |
| Data governance | 35 | 58 |
| General data literacy - analyse, interpret and apply data outputs and products | 33 | 55 |
| Communication of data (e.g. visualisation, effective reporting) | 29 | 48 |
| Data engineering | 26 | 43 |
| Data (or information) architecture | 25 | 42 |
| Data modelling | 25 | 42 |
| Data science | 23 | 38 |
| Machine learning design and validation | 22 | 37 |
| Data mining | 8 | 13 |
| Other | 14 | 23 |
Source: 2025 APS Agency Survey
Note: Percentages are based on agencies that identified data as a critical skills shortage (60 agencies). As agencies could select more than one option, total percentages may exceed 100%.
Table A 39 presents the proportion of 2024 and 2025 APS Employee Census respondents performing each type of work who identified ICT or digital as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup.
Table A 39: Proportion performing each type of work who identified ICT or digital as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup
| Type of work | % who selected ICT or digital as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2025 | |
| Overall APS | 29 | 28 |
| Information and communications technology and digital solutions | 57 | 56 |
| Information and knowledge management | 42 | 39 |
| Intelligence | 38 | 39 |
| Data and research | 34 | 35 |
| Science and health | 29 | 31 |
| Engineering and technical | 29 | 30 |
| Monitoring and audit | 29 | 29 |
| Compliance and regulation | 31 | 28 |
| Communications and marketing | 30 | 27 |
| Legal and parliamentary | 26 | 27 |
| Accounting and finance | 27 | 25 |
| Service delivery | 28 | 25 |
| Portfolio, program and project management | 26 | 24 |
| Human resources | 26 | 24 |
| Administration | 26 | 23 |
| Trades and labour | 24 | 21 |
| Senior executive | 24 | 20 |
| Policy | 18 | 18 |
Source: 2024 and 2025 APS Employee Census
Note: Overall APS refers to the proportion of all APS employees. Proportions are based on the number of respondents who identified a skill or capability gap within their immediate workgroup.
Table A 40 presents the proportion of 2024 and 2025 APS Employee Census respondents performing each type of work who identified data as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup.
Table A 40: Proportion performing each type of work who identified data as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup
| Type of work | % who selected data as a skill or capability missing from their immediate workgroup | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2025 | |
| Overall APS | 22 | 22 |
| Data and research | 49 | 49 |
| Intelligence | 31 | 33 |
| Monitoring and audit | 33 | 30 |
| Policy | 29 | 29 |
| Senior executive | 30 | 28 |
| Human resources | 26 | 28 |
| Information and knowledge management | 29 | 26 |
| Portfolio, program and project management | 27 | 26 |
| Science and health | 22 | 21 |
| Compliance and regulation | 22 | 20 |
| Communications and marketing | 20 | 19 |
| Accounting and finance | 19 | 17 |
| Engineering and technical | 14 | 17 |
| Administration | 16 | 14 |
| Information and communications technology and digital solutions | 14 | 14 |
| Legal and parliamentary | 13 | 14 |
| Service delivery | 13 | 13 |
| Trades and labour | 8 | 11 |
Source: 2024 and 2025 APS Employee Census
Note: Overall APS refers to the proportion of all APS respondents. Proportions are based on the number of respondents who identified a skill or capability gap within their immediate workgroup.
Table A 41 presents the number and proportion of agencies in 2025 that had designed or implemented specific initiatives to address identified critical skills shortages.
Table A 41: Number and proportion of agencies that had designed or implemented specific initiatives to address identified critical skills shortages
| Which initiatives has your agency designed or implemented to specifically address these shortages? | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of agencies | % | |
| Individual Flexibility Arrangements (IFA) | 65 | 83 |
| Capability uplift using non-accredited programs (including non-accredited learning and development, training, upskilling, conferences and professional memberships) | 61 | 78 |
| Targeted recruitment and retention activities | 56 | 72 |
| Entry level programs (including apprenticeship, cadetship, graduate, career starter, internship, and traineeship) | 51 | 65 |
| Internal mobility programs (e.g. secondments, temporary transfer) | 40 | 51 |
| Capability uplift using accredited programs | 35 | 45 |
| Talent management or succession planning | 32 | 41 |
| Embedding the APS Professions within the agency | 26 | 33 |
| Rewards and recognition activities or programs | 26 | 33 |
| Specific APS Job Family or other workforce segment workforce plans or strategies | 26 | 33 |
| Developed a targeted employee value proposition | 18 | 23 |
| Re-skilling activities or programs | 12 | 15 |
| Other | 7 | 9 |
Source: 2025 APS Agency Survey
Note: Percentages are based on agencies which had identified any critical skills shortages (78 agencies). As agencies could select more than one option, total percentages may exceed 100%.