IPAA Professional Capability Standards

A series of Professional Capability Standards have been developed by IPAA. These Standards support our focus on developing capability and increasing the professionalism of public administration – to enable a high-performing public sector.

The Standards are outcome based designed to complement and integrate seamlessly with public employment and leadership frameworks produced by the public service, Australia-wide.

Three Standards have been published to date (see related documents), including:

• Policy Professional Capability Standard
• Procurement Professional Capability Standard
• Regulatory Professional Capability Guidance

The Standards were designed by experts from public sector agencies, professional bodies, and organisations in the private, tertiary and vocational educational sectors.

• The standards are outcome based and reflect expectations of performance achieved by a skilled professional at an Australian Qualifications Framework level 9.
• Organisations are free to incorporate the IPAA standards into their human resources framework in any way they wish. They can assist agencies in recruiting new staff members, reducing risk and targeting training effort, managing the performance of individuals and developing personal and organisational development plans.
• The standards are advisory and available for people to use as they choose.

The standards can help answer questions such as:

For an individual

• What do I need to be able to do, to be a professional in this area?

For an organisation

• What outcomes can we expect from professionals in this area?
• What should we be asking for when we want to recruit a professional into this role?,
• Does this training course/ development opportunity address our gaps in professional capability ?
• Where should we invest in training and development to improve the professional productivity of this agency?
• For an education organisation
• What areas should our curriculum address to produce a professional in this area?

• Related Documents
• Policy Professional Capability Standard
• Procurement Professional Capability Standard
• Regulatory Professional Capability Guidance