Training

The Department needs staff with comprehensive professional skills and knowledge, strong leadership and management ability, and a high level of integrity and ethical behaviour. The Department recognises the key role of targeted and effective training in ensuring the high calibre of its staff and this is reflected in its quality training and development program and the integration of training as a key component into the performance management system.

The Department’s extensive training program includes core competency courses such as speech writing, negotiation skills, budgets and planning and presentation skills. The Department also runs a regular series of in-house seminars on issues in contemporary Australian foreign, trade and consular policy.

The Department's capacity to speak the languages of our key trading and strategic partners is critical to our success in pursuing Australia’s national interests in the international arena. In addition to pre-posting language training, the Department offers regular conversation classes in various languages and periodic ‘key language’ immersion courses.

Training delivery methods are wide-ranging and include a mixture of internal seminars, courses run by external consultants and e-learning.