By Sanjana Ramachandran, APS Academy
The Academy is excited to share some significant work initiatives which are planned for 2025.
In 2025 there will be more opportunities to develop your Policy, Government and Partnership crafts. In the policy space, a new policy learning pathway will be developed to support strategic policy professionals to specialise and build capability. It will include the redesign of existing offerings such as Developing Great Policy and the introduction of a new offering on Structured Thinking. Furthermore, there are pilot projects planned to test policy infrastructure practices in agencies and explore a large-scale online Writing in Government course. The development and pilot delivery of an induction partnership workshop for all APS Senior Executive Service (SES) employees will also take place.
The Leadership & Management craft remains in focus for the year ahead and we are growing our partnerships – both within and outside the APS – to support demand for these programs, learning products and experiences.
We are scaling up our EL2 leadership and management craft offering by developing and expanding APS Leadership Edge, recognising the vital role EL2 employees play in delivering business outcomes. There has been strong interest in our new Community, which will create a continuous learning environment for EL2s from across the service. This Community seeks to meet the demand for EL2s to connect through high-impact social learning experiences, seek advice and learn from each other. It will also provide: access to masterclasses; targeted learning opportunities and sharing of EL2 specific resources. The Community is offered alongside the Leadership Edge learning sprints which provide in depth social learning on important APS topics e.g. integrity, psychological safety, and stewardship.
An additional offering in the EL2 space, delivered for cohorts of Directors within agencies on request is Empowering Conversations. This program provides Directors with the opportunity to structure and practise the skills needed to facilitate complex conversations to achieve positive outcomes with their teams and stakeholders.
The Academy’s APS Graduate Development Program is also continuing to expand. The 2025 program which commences at the end of February will have over 400 graduates participating from over 30 agencies. There is also huge demand for our Event Series for graduates occurring throughout 2025.
Within the Senior Executive space the full suite of our programs, from SES Orientation through to SES B3 will run in 2025. SES Orientation welcomes new SES Band 1s or those joining the APS senior executive service to challenge themselves, step up to the higher strategic accountabilities of the role, step out to take a broader ‘systems view’ and step forward to develop more capable teams.
The SES Band 1 Leadership Development Program provides an opportunity to explore and deepen understanding of leadership concepts, including adapative leadership and equips participants with the tools to better navigate complex situations, providing a chance to reflect on leadership behaviours and goals.
With a focus on ethics and integrity, citizen centrism and adaptive leadership, the SES Band 2 Leadership Development Program expands self-awareness and enhances enabling and entrepreneurial capabilities to effect meaningful change in line with the APS reform program.
Our Senior Executive Stewardship Program will commence in the second half of 2025, with nominations sought from Secretaries and Agency Heads in the next quarter.
Find out more about program offerings and respective dates
The establishment of a Learning and Development Evaluation Resource Hub is a significant APS L&D Strategy initiative that will support evaluation capability across the APS. It is an online platform which will provide practical guides, templates, case studies and resources to deepen knowledge in learning evaluation. The Academy will implement the third stage of the Action Plan from the APS L&D Strategy. This will build on actions taken towards a one-APS learning development system. It includes initial steps from the Learning Technology Roadmap that focus on discoverability, access, capability uplift and governance that will make it easier for APS Staff to find courses and learning resources
The Academy will also continue to grow its partnerships (within and outside the APS) to identify, share and scale excellent learning products and experiences that strengthen APS Craft skills. If you would like to partner with us or to find out more please continue to check out the Academy website or contact the Academy team.