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Career Development Assessment Centre (CDAC)

CDAC is designed for high performing EL 2 employees who demonstrate genuine potential for fast-tracking into the Senior Executive Service (SES). CDAC assesses future SES leaders from within the APS, providing these EL 2 employees the opportunity to evaluate and identify core leadership capabilities through a series of challenging workplace scenarios.

Participants are measured against the Senior Executive Leadership Capability (SELC) Framework and the Integrated Leadership System (ILS), the Commission’s benchmarks for APS career advancement.

Like all Commission learning and development opportunities, the CDAC experience is results driven, culminating in comprehensive individual development plans designed to build on capability strengths and address gaps identified through the CDAC experience. Participants overwhelmingly endorse the course as an invaluable personal development tool crafted to meet the high performance expectations of the SES.

CDAC Objectives

  1. To build the leadership capability of the APS
  2. To provide an opportunity for participants to discover new skills and abilities through unfamiliar situations and tasks
  3. To promote enhanced self-awareness and insight
  4. To identify participants’ strengths and development needs and provide strategies to address them
  5. To guide participants in completing their personal development plan.

The Program

Monday (10.00am–5.30pm)

Tuesday (8.00am–6.00pm)

Wednesday (8.30am–5.00pm)

Thursday or Friday

Recall day

Each CDAC runs for five days and includes a three day centre, a 2½ hour feedback session and a recall day. The three day centre involves 12 EL 2 employees from participating agencies, six observers, a senior organisational psychologist facilitator and the Commission’s CDAC team. Of the six observers, four are SES Band 2 or 3 officers who have been trained to observe and evaluate the performance of participants in the CDAC simulation activities. The other two observers, who are qualified and experienced organisation psychologists from the facilitating consultant organisation, have extensive experience in assessment and capability development.

Approximately eight weeks post-centre a recall day is scheduled for participants to discuss their progress in relation to their development plan, talk through any strategies or stumbling blocks, and have the opportunity to present their plans thus far to the group. There are also two SES guest speakers invited to speak to the participants about "Starting in the SES" and to answer questions afterwards.

Assessment

The major focus for CDAC is the identification of participants' strengths and development needs in relation to the SELC Framework, and specifically the SES Band 1 behavioural indicators in the ILS. This is achieved through a range of assessment activities that are mapped against the SELC Framework and the ILS. These activities include:

Performance Feedback

Participants receive a 2½ hour, one-on-one, detailed feedback session on their overall performance with one of the facilitating organisation's observers. The focus of the session is to provide specific information about the participant's development needs and strengths in relation to the SELC Framework and ILS and based on the CDAC activity results. Additionally, the session is designed to provide assistance to participants in determining what they would need to do in order to bridge the gap between their current performance and expected levels of SES performance. After the session, a written report on the feedback is provided to participants. To optimise learning outcomes and ongoing development, participants are encouraged to discuss CDAC results with their line managers.

Development Plan

Detailed development plans are constructed by the participants and tailored to address their individual needs in relation to the SELC Framework and ILS as identified through the CDAC activities. The role of a participant's line manager in ongoing development, review and evaluation of development plans, is a critical component in ensuring sustained success for the participant.

Capability Development Guide (CDG)

The capability development guide is a self-development tool to assist current and future senior executives in the Australian Public Service (APS) to manage their professional development. It is based on the 20 capabilities critical for effective performance in leadership roles, as outlined in the senior executive leadership capability (SELC) framework and further expanded in the integrated leadership system(ILS).

The capability development guide was originally developed for use in the Australian Public Service Commission’s Career Development Assessment Centre (CDAC), which was established in December 1999. This guide suggests a series of development activities for each of the 20 leadership capabilities.

Agency Head Involvement

Each participant's agency head receives a copy of the 360° feedback report and a summary report of performance against the SELC Framework and ILS capabilities as assessed in the CDAC simulations. It is an expectation that, post-CDAC, all participants meet to discuss the CDAC experience with their agency head.

Background

CDAC plays an important role in maintaining the high quality of the SES in order to meet the future challenges of the APS. In early 1999 APS agency heads identified a need to strengthen the development of future executives. Originally, 15 agency heads agreed to collaborate on and commit to the design and implementation of a CDAC. CDAC was specifically designed for the APS using the SELC Framework as a basis for all activities, evaluation and participant development planning. The first CDAC was run in December 1999.

CDAC is coordinated on behalf of participating agencies by the Australian Public Service Commission. The fourth series of CDAC commenced in the second half of 2008. As at June 2009, there have been 109 centres in which 1211 EL2s have participated, and the effectiveness of CDAC has seen the number of participating agencies grow from 15 in 1999 to 48 in 2009.

Nominations

Each agency manages its own process for nominating participants, however the Australian Public Service Commission suggests that the following guidelines be taken into account:

If you are interested in attending CDAC please contact the HR area in your agency.

Dates and Venue

The Australian Public Service Commission runs approximately 10 CDACs each financial year.

The CDACs are held at the Tuggeranong Homestead in Canberra and follow-up meetings and recall days are held at the Australian Public Service Commission in Phillip.

Fees

$12,925 (including GST)
Travel, accommodation and allowances are additional costs to be met by sponsoring agencies.

Further information

For further information contact the CDAC team: