Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Hello everyone. I'll just give it another couple of minutes as people start joining. I do note it's just about ticked over 530, so we'll just give it another minute or two to allow other people to join and we'll get underway.

But I haven't seen the attendees go up too fast, so I think we might just make a start. It's just ticked over 530 or might watch here. So we will make a start.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Hello and welcome everyone to the veterans.Employment Pathways Candidate Information evening.

My name is Aaron Elix, and I'm an Assistant Director from the engagement and code design team here at the Department of Veteran Affairs. And I'm very very keen To being your facilitator for today's live event. But before we begin, I would just like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the many lands we are all meeting upon today and pay my respects to their elders, past and present here in Canberra. I would also like to acknowledge the The Ngunnawal (Ngunawal) and Ngambri peoples I extend that respect to any First Nations peoples we have joining us today.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): I'm aware that we may have many serving and ex serving people in the group with us today as well and I just wanted to say thank you for your service and
I would also like to acknowledge the families who support those who have served or are serving now.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): We have a bit of a full jam packed live event today with speakers including Katrina Jocumsen. We've got Khalil Fegan, and Mike Barnes, the VetPaths Coordinator. We've also got representatives from Hudson recruitment on the line as well.

And also a big shout out to services Australia and Department of Defence who are joining us tonight as well.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Now just a little bit about the digital housekeeping for today's event. This is a live event. So you will only be able to see myself and the other presenters when I send them live, we cannot see or hear you.
But you might be asking well, how do I pose a questionnaire well if you look to the top of your screen, you'll see there's a queue and a chat bubble.

If you simply click that Q&A chat bubble, it'll activate a right hand column on your screen simply go ahead and start posting your questions or comments throughout today's live event and me as a facilitator, I'll do my best to address all of those questions as we go along. If for whatever reason we're unable to get to all of those questions in today's live event we will be providing a email address for you to flick those questions through post this event.

If you do see someone that has asked a question that you're wanting to know more about or that you were going to ask, just give it a thumbs up rather than typing it again. It just saves that duplication side of things.

As I mentioned, we will take breaks throughout the session after each presenter just to have a scan of the Q&A chat stream and just have a look if there are any questions to pose to the presenters today. Now this is a live event. We're all using tech new tech here as well, so there maybe some technical issues throughout today and I just ask for your patience if this does happen now.

This session is being recorded and in the event someone that you know would like to view this as well it'll be published on a website, so you can come back to that as well. Now moving
on to our first presenter, we had the Chief People Officer for our department and that is Katrina Jocumsen, so I'm going to hand over to you, Katrina. And your live!

Katrina Jocumsen (Chief People Officer, DVA): Thank you, Aaron. Hi everybody. As Aaron said my name is Katrina Johnson and I'm the Chief people officer here at the Department of Veterans Affairs. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about bet bet paths today, but before I begin, I will also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I particularly want to extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples who are joining us.

And, I would also like to acknowledge the unique nature of ADF service and thank those of you on this call, who have served or are serving, and thank you for that service.

I am the veteran employment pathway is we affectionately like to call it VetPaths for short is an initiative that this department started because we're really committed to supporting veterans and we're we wanna help them support them with employment and opportunities to come into the public service. We piloted a program the year before last. It was very successful. And so this version now is the sort of first
full gone into iteration of that program, the Veteran Pathways program Mantra is continuing to serve, so the idea behind that is that as defence personnel, you have unique skill sets and experience and a whole lot of valuable stuff that you can bring to the public service and we want to find a way to support you in a new career path to bring all that to the public service so that you can continue serving the public.

We really talk about a supported program. So there are sort of four pillars of support that we want to focus on, they are the first one is learning and development, so you will be supported really well in learning. So you will, we will help you understand get you to understand the new world, which is that public service which is quite different from ADF, but still so similar in so many ways and we will make sure that you will have the access and opportunities as you come in but also continuing in your career on in those kinds of learning and development opportunities we will also do as part of your development and induction program. So as we've sort of said, 
this program is going to be run across a number of different agencies and so we'll bring you all together from whichever agency you end up in so that you can come together and get to know each other and be supported with your peers, and in this program going forward.

The second pillar of that support is a buddy network so you'll be all any participants will be allocated a buddy who is a veteran themselves. Who can help you transition into your public service career. This is kind of like your real go to person who can help you with the potentially silly questions that you don't want to ask others. You know, where's the photocopier? How do I refer to the secretary? What to, you know, do I call a bio first name? or do I use her title? All those kind of little things. You know? Do I have to wear a tie to work or all that stuff that.

You just not really sure about. You'll have somebody who's walked the same path you have who can help you navigate that space the third part of that support is a proper formal mentor. So this is somebody who, again, will also be a veteran but will be more senior to you and more experienced in terms of their public service career, who can provide you with a mentoring and coaching around how you might progress your apps career as you transition through the pathway, but also then help you beyond that and then the 4th one, on which I'm personally quite connected to is about family inclusion.

So I myself, I'm a military wife of 30 years and counting. And so I know how ADF life kind of wraps families into certainly does now. It didn't used to 33 years ago. It was a bit different but how they wrapped families into ADF employment and how your families are connected and involved. So, we want to sort of continue that through. So in part we're helping your families transition as well.

From that ADF service to the public service, the Australian Public Service, so some of the initiatives that happened, 
under our pilot, there was often some social evenings, some trivia nights different things like that. We bring families into the workplace so they can see where your work. So sort of similar to that ADF lifestyle, but in a way that helps them, you know, with that whole seamless transition.

So, they are the four pillars and I think are really other thing that's really important to understand is in that support
you will be supported by veterans. Well, people like myself, who are family members of veterans or ex or current serving personnel, so you're wrapped around with people like you who
understand you and are living in this new world and are able to help transition you into this new world. So, it really is a very supported program and alluded to, this vet pass program for this this year, there's going to be a range of positions available through Services Australia, the Department of Defence, and within our own department here at the Veterans Affairs.

We may have other agencies come on board, but they're the main ones where they have identified vacancies available and they've put them aside and said we're really keen to have veterans apply for those vacancies. Now it is a mid level mid career level program, so we're not looking for people who don't know anything again it's going back to their skills and experience. So those vacancies will vary for level and vary for job type they will just vary.

So not everything will be suitable for you, so it's worthwhile having a look and seeing what's on offer and seeing where you might best be able to match your skill set. Next experience, and if you're not sure and you want some guidance. Even on that, I would refer you to Mick Barnes, who was kind of the face of our that past program. Mick, like you is a veteran, so he's walked to the path and he'll be able to help you. He can help translate what is probably really annoying to you is that public service language that we will use in our job ads, so you can understand what that means in your context and know having said that, I will just point out that the military is very good to having its own jargon, but we will, we'll do mic, we'll be able to do that translation service so that you can understand the way we talk and we can help you apply that. So have a look at the jobs that are on there if you want to apply you can do that through. There's two mechanisms you can do that through the defence, sorry, through devas actual website or you can go to apps jobs where all public service jobs published and you will find that there but again if you're not sure where that is, talk to Mick and he'll be able to hold your hand and take you to that site. I just wanna give a pitch
for the public service. It really is a great place to work. I am like I said, as a military wife, I'm a die hard. I tried to talk to young people all the time about joining the military I think that's a great lifestyle and a great opportunity for people on so many different levels and so for my mind, if they say no, I'm not interested in stripping on a uniform. And then I say we'll come and to work in the public service because it's quite similar we don't have the uniforms, which is some days good, some days bad, But we do have a lot of the great perks. We have good learning and development, we have great pay, we have great superannuation, we have really excellent flexible working arrangements where family friendly. There's a whole bunch of stuff that makes us a really good employer. And so I think if you're the kind of person that enjoyed and thrived in military service, where we're probably a natural next step for you because there's a little bit of structure and that service element is there and we have to have high integrity and all those things that you do and we have to have leadership but we also get some other great benefits as well that really do make it make it a great job opportunity too.

There's also mobility. That's the other thing. So I guess. You know you can flip from one branch, one department to the other relatively easily as well. So I always describe it a bit like a candy store there's so many different areas that you can work in the public service and you know if you come in through the agencies that where the jobs are on offer.

Over time, you can move to other agencies where your skill set is even more in need, or where you have a personal connection to and you it really is a candy store.

There's Department of Health, there's education, there's all the intelligence agencies. There's a whole bunch of stuff out thereto do. So your second career could take you anywhere. And again, the mentoring and the coaching and the support you'll get through this pathway will help you shape that and identify those opportunities so that you can make the most of them going forward.

I think I've kind of rattled off everything I wanted to talk to you about and feel free to ask any questions and if you think of questions afterwards again, I would encourage you to reach out this is not the one stop opportunity for you. Keep coming back to us. No question is too silly.

We're happy to answer any questions A lot of the agencies are going through enterprise bargaining at the moment so we have all our terms and conditions in our enterprise agreements all up in the air, but the team can answer any questions that you might need to know on how you can apply your personal situation to a public servant service job and how that might suit you. So please, I encourage you to connect and I'm ask ask any of those questions. So i'll leave it there. Thanks Aaron and I'll hand back to you to pass on to the next speaker.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Fantastic. I just have to take myself off mute there. You know, technical issues. Thank you so much, Katrina, for sharing all of that. And it does sound like very, very exciting time for those participants online. If they choose to join.

But it looks like we do have a question, Katrina. So don't 
go too far. And it's a question around what does merit based process? Are you able to speak to that one, Katrina, I can.

Katrina Jocumsen (Chief People Officer, DVA): Sorry. I'm see. Look at me. I'm already slipping into the public service jargon merit based processes are. It's what we do in the public service. So, we have a rule in the public service that any permanent ongoing position has to be advertised to every Member, every eligible member of the Australian community eligible generally means you have to be an Australian citizen. There are some exceptions around that so,the reason for that is we have to be fair and transparent and give everybody the opportunity to apply and then in that merit process, we are assessing people.

My skills and capabilities in a variety of ways on how best they can help. How best fit they are for that vacancy for that position. And so it is a bit competitive, you're compared against others so often you might find if we are testing 20 people on a particular vacancy, you might find ten of those 20 plenty are suitable for the vacancy and they could do the job.

10 May not be suitable for whatever ever reason. And so we often have these merit pools where we establish a list of people who are suitable they've all been assessed and tested.
And found are suitable as I said so.

It really is about having a pool of people that you can draw on and that's what we will do in this process. You will apply for roles. You'll be assessed against the roles and those that are found suitable. We will be selected now I think Mick can probably speak more to this. I want to speak to ADF terms, but those that aren't successful for these roles, I think we will continue to support you in some way to secure jobs in the public service. So it's not the end of end of the road. So that takes a bit back to my point and I often encourage people when they're applying for positions, don't apply for the one with the highest pay. Don't apply for the one that looks the coolest or whatever it might be applied for the one that you think you can contribute the most to cause it is competitive.

That helpful Aaron does that answer the question?

Aaron Elix (Faciliatator): I think that's very, very helpful, Katrina, but look, don't go too far. Actually, I think this question might be for Mick. And there's a question around are the roles nationally or are they Canberra based? Mick, did you want to come off?

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Yeah thanks Aaron, yes the positions are all around Australia as we have in capital cities. So no matter where you are, please do still apply and I'll talk to a bit more about the merit pool a little bit later on. So even if you're not in a capital city please still apply because we don't know what's gonna happen into the future. We do encourage everybody from around Australia to apply no matter where you are.

Aaron Elix (Faciliatator): Very well said. They're thank you for that question. There will. And Milo, I do see your comment in there about is this being recorded for us to reference later, I can confirm it is Milo. So thank you very much for that. I don't see there being any new questions coming in.

Oh, sorry specifically for you, Katrina. So I think we might we. Oh sorry. Look, there is one more here it could be a Mick question or it could be a Katrina question. And it's asking alpha testing?

Is that a Mick or a Katrina question?

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): I'm happy to take that on. You take the mic. Thank you. Thanks. No worries. So in short, aptitude testing. I wouldn't say exactly aptitude testing and I'll touch on exactly what our recruitment process is a little bit later, but it's a lot more simplified than standard apps recruitment and I won't get into that in much more detail just yet.

Aaron Elix (Faciliatator): All right. Thank you very much, Mick. OK, thank you for answering that. Look, we might just move along to our next presenter. And that is our Repatriation, Commissioner Mr Khalil Fegan. So without further ado, Khalil, I'm going to send you live mate and you've got the floor. So thank you very much. Khalil, over to you.

Khalil Fegan (Repatriation Commissioner):Hi Aaron. Thank thanks very much mate and hard act to follow. Let me tell you something coming behind Katrina, because she is a she is 
an Oracle in this space. What that Lady doesn't know is probably not worth what knowing and supported by the excellent Mick Barnes as well. So we're all in that. We're all in good hands. 18 forget my background on travelling at the moment. I'm sitting in a dingy hotel room in Brisbane. There you go, but, I listen. Can I? Can I just start or say by thanking you all for your service in whatever.

Whatever feels that you've come from, whether it was for one day or decades. Thank you. Thank you for that. For that service and also just for being curious about a career in the APS and for joining this live event. It will, I can guarantee you serve you well and you'll learn stuff that will help you in this next stage of all of your life. 

Hey, listen, as Aaron said I am Khalil, I am the repatriation, Commissioner and I've only just transitioned out of the military myself. I left in officially transitioned in March of last year and so I've just been through that journey, which I suspect many of you were going through at the moment. And it was very interesting for me because I took a little bit of a break when I when I left and I initially thought, listen, I'm going to take, you know, a few weeks off before I start a new job and start applying for jobs, but what inevitably happened was that when I started going out because I didn't know quite 
what I wanted to do and started applying, I realised that finding employment wasn't as easy as I initially thought it would be and I started to get a lot of knockbacks on applications and everything. So that was a real confronting and learning experience from me and I'd be lying to you. I said there wasn't a couple of moments of panic.

There however, you know, I realised that those not backs, and we'll all get them were real learning experience. And next time I got one I learned a little bit about it and I saw it 
advice and I adapted. Anyway. Long story short, I was I was approached and I applied for the advertised role for the Repatriation Commissioner and I've landed in the Australian Public Service. So on independent of DVA on the statutory appointment holder. So I'm independent, But our work hand in glove with this department and I must say I feel very, very, very privileged to do so and again I'm learning. I'm learning lots off. Find it I find it not just my role, but working in this environment quite a quite exciting, which is great.

Hi, Jane. Mark. Cultural, cultural differences, you know, I was asked us to speak about it. Absolutely. And know, and they are. They are, they are. They are there you it is a very different environment and it's one that we need to get used to very, very quickly however the values and the ethics are very similar. So once you learn once you do the langs course and you can start to talk APS it the environment becomes a lot more familiar.

And the other thing is, although the people are civilians and if you're anything like me, you've ever probably having a lot to do with civilians they're OK. They're not aliens you know, they are playing so wonderfully I shouldn't say surprised because that's silly, but wonderfully in awe of just how many great people are out there working in these civilian environments. And I've really already made some friends that I hope will become lifelong friends so.

That's not, that's a. That's a terrific thing. And I hadn't offered that to you, just to give you some assurances that it's a pretty cool environment now the veterans employment pathway. So I didn't know about it when I was going through the process, but I've since since joining the APS and been able to talk to Katrina Jocumsen and Mick Barnes of learnt a lot about it this is a good program, right? It is a good program.

It it's a, it's a means by which the organisation, the Australian Public Service, through its interaction with veterans who have already transitioned and come across and integrate it into the public service, can assist you can help you. And I think that is wonderful. So, listen to Team will go into a lot more detail but all I wanna do is assure this program only exists for one reason and that is to help that is to help you. Help your land help you have a soft landing and get up and start contributing valuable, valuably in your new environment in your new life as a civilian in the APS if that's what you elect to do. So, how do you how do you get the gig it?

It's not easy. There's no golden handshake or easy pathway or anything like that for us, but there is a lot of help out there. But the one of the first things you can do is help yourself and what I mean by thatis that we know in service that we acquire a lot of valuable skills. But what? we are dreadful at doing is articulating those in a way that resonates in the real world. So and I'm going to give you an example.

I was talking to a young fellow just recently who was busted. Both of these knees, he's been medically discharged, and he he's feeling lost and I said we'll talk to me about your career, mate. What have you done? He said. I haven't really done anything. I was. I did my I's and I went to one RAR and I busted my knees and I'm medically discharged. And I said, what rank were you so the Lance? Corporal and I said so have you done your subject 1 and subject to for corporal and he said,
yeah. And I said, mate, you have done one of the best leadership and management courses for junior leaders.

In the world you have had, you have had opportunity to have direct charges working for you of no less than eight people you have had a wealth of responsibility in autonomous environment, unsupervised and dealing with some very, very complex human problems, and you've been recognised for that by promotion. And I said don't play down what you've done. You've done amazing, amazing things.

So my first bit of advice I suppose is just be aware of that and seek advice to help tell that story in a way that resonates. And the good thing about this pathway and us as veterans is there's, let me assure you, thousands of veterans out there that have done it before you and can help you.

So that's really, really important to understand. You need to be very, very proud of your service and be proud of it, but it doesn't define you as such, fully defined you as such but you need to be able to tell that tell that. Tell that story, those veterans that have come before you. Can I encourage you to reach out to everybody and, here's the other thing. Ranked doesn't matter, right? I, so it doesn't matter if they were a general or a leading scheme and it doesn't matter if they're out there and them. Reach out, reach out on LinkedIn, send them an email or a text. If you can stalk them on Facebook but reach out and just say hey, listen, I could. I have a conversation with you and what I found team in the public service is that everybody, every veteran out there really wants to help.

Some of them are really time poor and in difficult jobs, but they genuinely wanna help another veteran especially a veteran who's transitioning. So lean forward, be proactive.

Get out there. Find these people seek advice, say to them. You know, like this young fella. To me the other day, I was only this. And get them to help translate that message in a way that sells you because you are a friggin valuable commodity You know you can do great stuff in the APS, so this and I encourage you to it to lean on those networks as much as you can and when you get it right out and you may have a couple of kicks and knocks before you land somewhere we're hoping you're you look at and land in the APS and more specifically in DVD because we need good people. But your land, OK and it may take a while to land there, that's OK, but when you do listen, you've all done it before. Work hard, work hard to be a good person to do your job as best as he can. Work hard to get the cultural sensitivity piece right. Think about it like a deployment you gotta culturally aware and work hard to make friends and I love what Katrina said. I love that the APS gives you a whole heap of opportunities, but just, get a foot in the door, try and find somewhere where you think you can make a difference. Work hard, make make friends and make a difference, and then you'll find that all these doors open. So listen, can I? And I can say this sincerely to you I am trying to trying to persuade you to consider DVA but, I can tell you it's seriously this program is a good program. Lean forward into it, invest it. Invest in it and see how far it can take your team. But listen, I said DVA, right it also pertains to other organizations in the APS so, keep in mind open to that DVA is obviously taking a leading front and really pushing with it. But it also pertains to many other government departments as well who could be is equally as valuable or I don't know, DI, but there you go. Right on. That's all for me, Aaron. I might hand back over to you, mate. Yeah.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): no worries, Khalil. Thank you very much and I love the way that you put that earlier on Khalil about saying this program is here to help I love that sentence. Then the way you put that look, there are a couple of questions. I don't think they directed at you specifically, Khalil, but there's a couple around application and the process of, as well, there's one asking could we reach out and apply for openings even if we haven't yet submitted the transition application? And then how many positions are available? And how many applicants are there is?

This a Mick question? I think it is. I can see him coming off mute, so I'm sending you live, Mick. Go for.

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Yeah, definitely. This is open to those. I think it's mentioned. Anybodyn, i the public who would like to apply. So even if you haven't yet submitted the transition application.

You can still apply, however, if you're still thinking about
staying in defence. We're not poaching you from defence. The Defence Force is a great career and if you wanna, if you're inkling, is to stay in, stay in and help serve the country that way. But if you have made your decision and your now transitioning from the Defence Force, then yes, you can apply now even if you've got a future discharge date. I mentioned an 18 month merit pool which I'll cover off again in a minute, so if it doesn't, if there's an order first round offer there could be a potential opportunity.

Later on down the track. So you if you're not in it to win it, you're not in it to win it. So you still please apply how many positions available and how many applicants are applications are there.

I have one answer for that and it's not a specific answer, it's multiple, it's changing every day. So positions even, the positions I have new business areas coming on board saying Mike this is a great program. How can I get one of my vacancies in there and I'm talking to them daily basis on a daily basis. And the same as the applications the applications are open now. So that's changing on a daily basis as well so.

Sorry, that's not a specific as it might you might want, but that's the best I can give.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): That's awesome. Thank you very much Mick and, and Luke. Don't go too far because I do know from the next agenda item, it looks like you're back in the spotlight and there is a question and I do note that someone has said how exactly does this program work? Well, that's it. That is a great segue because we are now moving over towards.

Mick and as well as Mick, we are joined by Crystal Lugge. And Crystal is from Hudson 's recruitment. Mick is going to be talking to you about the recruitment, update and discuss to you about the pathways specifically and then we'll hear from
Crystal, but I'm going to hand back to Mick first, so back.

You are in the spotlight, Mick, thank you. 

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Thank you, Aaron and thank
you everybody. Thank you Katrina and Khalil for your wonderful presentation so far.

I'm not gonna introduce my name because everybody's heard it so far. So, I'm the Assistant director and for the Veteran's employment pathways. And as mentioned, I have transitioned from the army in 2006. I was a young gunner in the Royal Australian artillery, so please don't hold that against me but back then I was fortunate to join the apps and I cannot echo Katrina sentiments enough that this has been a wonderful 18 year, 18 year career post service and counting the mobility that Katrina mentions as well. I started way back then in services or Centrelink. It was, it was known. And, through its iterations to Services Australia and many, many different roles, I've not done the same thing for more than about two years I reckon. So that just kinda is testament to the mobility that the options that you have within the apps, which is all led to now and this wonderful position. And I'm humbled to be the lead for the Veterans employment pathway to deliver anyway.

Enough about me, I'm here to discuss the recruitment process and answer any questions as well that you might have regarding the pathways that's already come through so far.

Firstly, what we do, we recognise that the standard APS recruitment process can be ambiguous and is not the best method for employing veterans with the skills and experiences that we get from service, but we still need to follow legislation to ensure that we're transparent and fair in the processes that we employ. There are two parts that we are following for the vet parts recruitment exercise and that is the Public Service Act 1999 when we're employing veterans based on qualifications which are set out in section 20, two 6C. As well as following the APS Commissioners directions as he employed in 2022, which means we'll ensure that a fair and equitable selection process is followed enough of that legal mumbo jumbo. Basically, this is what we're doing.

First step is what we're in now, the current application phase. The roles are currently advertised on the APS Gazette and it was mentioned before by Katrina through our DVA website as well. If you've not yet applied jump into the DVA careers page and there's a file called continuing to serve.

Pause the APS veteran employment pathway. This is open until next week that closes Tuesday the 4th of April at 11:30 PM.
If you have already applied, and if you've heard something tonight that you might Wanna change? You can also log on and edit your application up until then as well, but before you apply.

I do encourage you. There is a candidate information pack that
contains further information on the roles that we have on offer in the apps, so please make sure you review this as you'll need to select three job preferences within the application process.

The application process is pretty simple some following some say starts off with some following the bouncing ball questions and you upload your resume. No pitch.

We just want to know about your work experiences in the ADF as well as any outside. Roles that you might have had, plus qualifications.

After the 4th of April, we'll commence our contact phase and this is where we wanna have a chat with you and assess your suitability against the roles you applied for.

This will be a contact with an experience APS staff member who
was also served, along with veterans from Hudson and I'll let Crystal talk about that in a moment following the chat. We'll then forward all relevant information to the hiring managers within services Australia defense, DVA to review and this is where we may wish to have another chat with you which is more specific to the role.

As mentioned, ultimately this is still a competitive process. There will be a first round of offers made and good luck if you get one of those, but if you don't, however, your information and merit pool status is kept for 18 months. Please don't stop applying for other roles in the apps. You can be in as many merit pools as you wish. I will continue though to champion your skills and experiences throughout that 18 months and maintain contact if other opportunities arise with other business areas other departments, other agencies within the APS, that's all for me for now.

I'm gonna hand over to Crystal from Hudson, so thank you for your time so far.

Crystal Lugge (Hudsons Recruitment): Hi, good evening, everybody. Thank you so much to Katrina, Khalil and Mick. My name is Crystal Lugge from Hudson Global Resources and I'm feeling very honored to be able to present to you today. What I'd like to do today is outline, who Hudson is and where we fit specifically within the VetPaths process and if you were to Google us, you would see that we are at a recruitment agency and this term takes on many forms the traditional view is to the agency would provide talent to clients. However, Hudson is partnering with DVA.

From a process management perspective and we work heavily in consultation with Mick and the VetPaths team and the services that we will be providing to DVA under this partnership in particular to that parts path scheduling services and scribing services working in close partnership means that we have regular contact with the DVA VetPaths team and we take direction from DVA.

So, this means that any contact that you have from the Hudson team has been approved or signed off by DVA and the VetPaths team.

Our role one this project is unique because we have two veteran scribes who will be working on this project and that is Mr Bruce Ashwin and Mr Phil Maine, I know that Bruce is in attendance observing this evening but those two names, if you are contacted by them on behalf of Hudson, they are veterans and they are very excited to also be working on this project with us.

I also wanted to outline what the role of ascribe is. It's a term that is specifically used in recruitment within the APS and what describe does is records the outcome of a recruitment process from a third party.

Non biased viewpoint describe is not an APS employee and has no conflict of interest with the stakeholders in the process. The outcomes are then submitted back to the department, in this case DVA.

In the form of a report for final review and sign off. At no point does a scribe influence the recruitment outcome and the department has the final approval on the content of the report in regards to Vespas, Hudson scribes Bruce and Phil will take on the scheduling and the recording of those outcomes from the VetPaths process.

So, in short, if you're contacted by Bruce or Phil, you'll surely feel comfortable with them and they will be taking you through the process in regards to the scheduling and any chats regarding the process. Thank you again for your time and wishing everyone a positive experience.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Thank you very much to both Mick and Crystal. There have been a couple of comments and questions that have come through the chat stream here and the 1st one is from Will and this is talking about length of service from being outside. So he asked is there, any limit on how long you have been out of the service? As I discharge some years back on?

Looks like you're Mick's come off again mix so back to you in the spotlight. Thank you very much.

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Thanks Aaron and short answer to that Will is that there's no you could be could have discharged yesterday. You could have discharged 2030 years ago. One thing I do note from ADF service is that it never goes away from you and all of those improvise, adapt, overcome and the terminologies, do not leave you and that's what we want. So, yeah, we there's no there's no limit.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Wonderful. Thank you very much, Mick, but don't go too far because there's a couple more questions there could be one that's thrown to Katrina as well, but at first the IT is, how long is the recruitment process?After the 4th of April to the first round of offers roughly?

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): That roughly we're hoping to have, let's go work backwards from my late may, which is our induction program, and we hope to have everybody on boarded by then, so we're looking at around that April, may period. So I'm gonna give it two months period of let's say the chats that we're gonna have. As well as the first round offers as well as there will be some onboarding process, that from each agency security checks police checks, et cetera. That's a standard onboarding process before we start in my. However, if you're discharging, earlier and you're cleared earlier, it's up to the hiring managers. They may be able to start you earlier if it's late if you discharge dates a little bit after May as well, we may be able to negotiate something there as well. So please don't put that those dates in concrete. We can still negotiate and discuss so and be flexible.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Also, Mick and I'm just gonna leave you in the spotlight as well. There's a question around is the programmer only full-time or are there part time positions as well?

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Yeah, very good question, that one. Thank you. So, there may be a requirement to start full time to get through a probation period depending on the agency, however part time work under the flexible working arrangements which is across all the apps and it'll be dependent on business area and agency on the ability to accept part time under the flexible working arrangements as negotiated with your needs and preferences as well as operational requirements of the role. So it's it varies from role to role.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Wonderful. Thank you very much, Mick. I will just send myself live here again, but thank you very much. Look, we'll push on to our next agenda item here and please keep those questions coming through in the chat stream, everyone, it's been wonderful and I'm just happy that our tech is actually working. You never know with this tech in
these live events. So look, I think the next session. 

What we're gonna do, we're gonna bring on one of the pilot program participants and that's Steve Vanselow. And the way we're gonna do this is we're gonna tap into his, I suppose he's lived experience and just I'm gonna do it almost like a panel discussion with.

Steve and just asking a few questions about he's know, he's history. And why did he join so? without further ado, the first question I'm going to ask to you Steve, before I send you live is are you able to share with the participants today just a brief history of your service over to you. You're in the spotlight now, Steve, thank you.

Steve Vanselow (Past VetPaths participant): Thanks, Aaron. Hello, everyone. Yes, I served in the Air Force full time 14 years. I was a musician. I got out in a 2017. So, I did have a break. I know that was one of the questions about having a having a break. So yeah, I started in the wet pads program just over two years ago now.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Thank you very much for sharing that. Steve and I do know you said you were a musician within your service. And what instrument did you play back then, Steve?

Steve Vanselow (Past VetPaths participant): I still play, so I played the bassoon, actually did a Bachelor of Music before joining the Air Force. And in my opinion, that was the dream job it was a fantastic time. A lot of people don't believe you and you say it's full time musician in the Air Force, but yeah that great gig.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Absolutely does sounds like one and does sound like a good gig and you can see my guitar in the back there. Maybe we'll learn couple we'll have a little bit of a jam together one day. I'm just kidding. Who knows? I don't know if the bassoon and the guitar, really work well together, but anyways, enough about music.

Moving on. So what role did you join the APS once you did come across Steve?

Steve Vanselow (Past VetPaths participant): Yes, I should say so I joined. I joined DVA so as part of the VetPaths program, I was offered a role as a project officer. Which is a fairly generic sounding role in the APS and the way I read that is that great I get to do all sorts of stuff and I do. So that's the role I started in DVA and now I'm a program officer, which is in some ways very similar. But enjoy that variety of the work I get to do.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Fantastic. Steve did, do you think I wanna share any highlights within your APS career or the veteran pathways career as well.

Any highlights there?

Steve Vanselow (Past VetPaths participant): Yeah. Look, I can't believe two years already gone past. And it's somewhat strange being on this side of the Q&A now. But I guess I'll start off with the VetPaths side of things.

As has been mentioned, there's a lot of investment that goes into your learning and development. So for me, I really enjoyed the training that was delivered to us as a cohort over that first year you were locked into the calendar pretty early. You knew what was around the corner. And you got to catch up with the rest of your cohort on those occasions, which was nice some of the courses you might have a bit of experience in before other ones you might not know anything about. And the ones that you do know a lot about. I mean that's an opportunity to maybe brush up on those skills or at the very least you can share your experience with your cohort.

So that was probably the highlight of the VetPaths. And then I suppose the highlight of outside of the VetPaths, sort of stream was I got to represent DVA at a commemorative service at the shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. That's where I work. And that was a personal significance because it was commemorating a battle that my grandfather fought in. So that was pretty special. And also as a musician, being on the other side of a commemorative service was it was quite interesting.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Thank you very much Steve for sharing that. I want to acknowledge the personal story that you shared there in the link as well. So thank you very much for sharing that. Look, I'm just going to take a break and skim the Q&A chat stream just to see if there's any questions for you state from the audience here quickly I look, I don't think there is anything specifically for you, but there may be some questions later on for the other presenters as well. So I think we've only got one more question here for you, Steve, and then you're out in the spotlight.

And it's just simply, why is it great to be in the APS? 

Steve Vanselow (Past VetPaths participant): That sounds like a plant that question. Why is it great? Look, work, life balance is probably, you know, the biggest tick in the box for me I mean. We all know there are certain demands when you're in the ADF and you take that as a given. Um, but for me a big part was that work life balance in the APS to be a larger part of the family at home with a young family just knowing that you're where you say you can be somewhere that, you're not gonna get a last minute call away to do whatever it may be.

So that's really good, and plus depending on your agency and your role, you might have, different access to flexible work arrangements so you don't have to be in the office necessarily every day, but once again depends on your role.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Wonderful Steve. Thank you very much and again, I just wanna say thanks for your time and then coming on and let me have a have a short Q&A session with you as well. Look, I might just start reading a few of these questions from the chat stream at the moment and if I do see a mic coming off mute from my end then I'll know that's who to throw to so the one is how critical is the certificate 3?

Thank you Adam for posting that question as well. Alright, Mick, it's you.

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): Yeah. Thanks, Adam. Another good question and the certificate, 3IN business slash government must say is the minimum requirement, right? So if you've done any other tertiary type study above and beyond that, so that could be bachelors or diploma or higher we may be able to accept that as the qualification as well. So, I can't list every single one that we can accept but however, if anybody here does not have the certificate 3IN business government, you may be able to still apply with your other tertiary qualifications.

Please reach out to the VetPaths mailbox which will send to you to for us to discuss which one specific to you.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Awesome. Thank you very much. Meet, but don't go too far because I believe there are a couple of other questions as well. And there's one that is Will the Lived Experience Framework currently in development intertwine
with the VP?

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): I would say that we are already talking to the lived experience framework team about how it intertwines with the VP's. However, I might put that question on notice because of how that pans out?

Yeah, we're just in early stages of development at the moment, so. I don't have much more of an answer to that one. Thanks.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): No, thank. Thank you very much, Mick is there an age gap for replying? No.

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): you can apply like Lego 0 to 90 no. So we, as Katrina mentioned, it's fair and equitable selection process we select on merit not age.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mick, look I'm wondering is if they apply for an APS roll outside of the VetPaths program, will they still receive the same support? 

Mick Barnes (VetPaths Coordinator): The support mechanisms, the support pillars that Katrina mentioned as what? As a part of the vet path, so we're out. It's so it's not entirely out there, but I don't wanna leave you if you do happen to win another role outside of the apps and you need some support that VetPaths mailbox is there. I would encourage you to talk to your hiring manager or team leader that you come and work for to reach out to us and we may be able to supply some other type of support. I don't wanna leave another fellow veteran out in the lurch and thinking about where's the photocopier or where's the inkind of support what I can get that the VetPaths
programs providing so we could potentially, you know talk to the team leaders about what we've got resources we've got available outside of the pathway.

So please reach out and we don't want, we're not gonna leave anyone in the lurch. 

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): I love that leaving. No leaving no one in the lurch. It's a great one as well. And look there's one more question in here and we do have a little bit of time.

This is a pretty interesting question. I I'm not too sure who's gonna, who's gonna be able to answer this one, but it's talking to, does the apps do any adventure training? team building?

It was who's brave enough to speak to, oh okay, Katrina. I saw you might come off, so then send you live.

Katrina Jocumsen (Chief People Officer, DVA): Thank you. Look, I think you know when I talked before about the APS being a bit of a candy store with all different agencies. There's different. There's a lot of similarities, but there's a lot of differences in those agencies. So all agencies are trying to build good culture, good teamwork and develop their people. And a lot of them will do that in different ways. 

So, it's not a definitive answer that everybody does that or it exists there would be agencies out there that are doing something possibly. They might take particular cohorts out on in venture training as part of a team building exercise. Whilst it wouldn't be on any level that I'm sure is experienced in the services, there would be some element of
it here. The other thing I would say is.

Coming into the public service, we really value diversity and we value new ideas and opinions. So if you were to come in to a role and into an agency and you're working in a team and you thought it could do with some sort of team bonding, then suggested, maybe that's be that's something that you might like to suggest. We are always open for new ideas and innovation and new ways of doing things. So doesn't give you an exact answer, but hopefully gives you a bit of a sentiment.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Katrina for speaking to that and something we do within our team in the engagement space as well. We've got a program called the Understanding, the veteran experience where we actually take staff on base and they can see first hand some of some of those training exercises that they go through picking up those heavy packs as well and really getting an understanding of where those claims come from as well. I'm 
seeing a couple new questions.

And there's one about you get an APS job opportunity outside the VetPaths. How can you help with that process? 

Sharon Kendal(A/g Director): It's probably a pretty quick answer, but send us an email on I'm open to all suggestions that come through and it's not the world, According to Mick in how we run this is a pathway for you so please reach out the VetPaths. Mailbox is monitored daily by myself and my and Dave who's in my team. He's not here tonight but we wanna hear your ideas. So please reach out. Awesome.

Even if you're not in the apps as well. It's really brilliant. Alright, thank you very much.

Aaron Elix (Facilitator): Look, I'm not seeing any further questions come through right now. But just as a reminder for those who do need to apply applications are only open for another week and they're closing the 4th of April. So jump onto the DVA website and search veterans employment pathway 
or check DVA's Facebook and LinkedIn posts as well as we did say originally and you can see the e-mail address being posted in there by my friend said thank you very much Emma for doing that as well if you do have any other questions like me, you've finished the event you go should have marked that well, flick an email through to the VetPaths at dva dot gov dot au email and team there. They're very, very helpful and they'll do their best to answer whatever queries you do have about the program and look just a reminder we do have our open arms 24/7, 7 days a week. Veterans and Veterans Families counseling service. And that number you can contact them on one 800 011 046 I would just like to thank everyone for your time. I would like to thank Katrina, Khalil and I'd like to thank Crystal. I'd like to thank Mick as well and especially I would like to thank the audience online and say thank you for joining and. thank you for your service. Have a good evening and bye bye.

Good luck everyone. Bye bye.