Embedding a culture of evaluation and continuous learning to underpin evidence‑based policy and delivery.
Contents
Executive summary
Evaluation Profession vision:
Embed a culture of evaluation and continuous learning to underpin evidence‑based policy and delivery within the Australian Government.
This strategy aims to:
- develop a professional pathway for public sector evaluators
- build evaluation awareness and technical ability within the Australian Government
- enable high‑quality evidence to deliver better outcomes for all Australians.
Priorities and actions
1. Growing and retaining the evaluation workforce
1.1 Supporting graduate recruitment
1.2 Supporting mid‑career evaluators
1.3 Supporting recruitment of evaluation‑focused SES roles
2. Developing professional evaluation skills and capabilities
2.1 Identifying & promoting training to deepen technical evaluation capabilities and skills
2.2 Supporting First Nations approaches to evaluation
3. Fostering a professional evaluation workforce
3.1 Promoting evaluation careers through sharing examples of career journeys
3.2 Defining specialist skill areas & developing a specialist Employee Value Proposition
4. Embedding an evidence and evaluation culture
4.1 Promoting the importance of high-quality evidence and evaluation
4.2 Strengthening SES evaluation training
5. Driving innovation in evaluation
5.1 Delivering forums and events to advance & share innovative approaches
5.2 Promoting the safe and ethical use of AI to support innovation in evaluation
Read the full strategy below or download a printable copy.
Download the APS Evaluation Profession Strategy (Word document, 186 KB)
Introduction
Evidence‑informed policy can help drive better outcomes for all Australians and is essential to maintaining and growing trust in government. Evaluation is a critical input to evidence‑informed policy – understanding what works, why and for whom can help enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of government policies.
The government’s reform agenda for the Australian Public Service (APS) recognises the importance of evidence and evaluation to better understand and respond to the needs of Australians. The government has committed to ensuring the APS has the right capability, tools and processes to assess and improve the effectiveness of policies and programs. The Australian Government is committed to building a stronger APS that delivers better outcomes for the community, acts as a model employer and contributes to a fairer and more inclusive Australia.
Embedding a culture of evaluation to underpin evidence‑informed policy design and delivery is critical to ensuring the APS has the capability to do its job well. Embedding a culture of evaluation requires sustained leadership, institutional changes, and capability building.
To support this, in February 2025, the government launched the APS Evaluation Profession. The Evaluation Profession is part of a comprehensive capability building initiative aimed at enhancing specialist skills and expertise across the APS.
By establishing professional networks, promoting best practice, and providing targeted training and development, the Evaluation Profession will help to build an APS workforce that uses evaluation, evidence and continuous improvement to drive better outcomes for all Australians. This will have a direct and positive impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of government policies and programs.
Evaluation in the APS
Evaluation is going to be a big part of all Australian Government departments and agencies. It matters to everyone in the Australian Public Service, from people making policies to those putting them into action or checking how well things are working. Whether you are using evaluation to shape your work or creating new evidence, it is something every public servant should care about.
The goal of the APS Evaluation Profession is to enhance the APS’s ability to design, commission, deliver, and use evaluation evidence to inform policy design and its delivery. By promoting robust analysis, interpretation, and use of evidence, the Profession aims to improve policy outcomes for all Australians.
The Evaluation Profession aims to foster collaboration across the broader evaluation community to build a genuine culture of evaluation, continuous learning and improvement. The Profession was developed by and for the Australian Public Service however the Profession’s Member Community Platform is also open to state, territory and local government employees.
The priorities and future directions of the APS Evaluation Profession will be decided by participating agencies of the Commonwealth Evaluation Reference Group and endorsed by the Profession heads. These governance arrangements aim to ensure that priorities and initiatives are shared and implemented across the APS.
Priorities and actions
The strategy’s priorities are organised into 5 interconnected streams of work. These priorities and their associated actions will be rolled out over time, with the sequencing guided by the Evaluation Reference Group.
1: Growing and retaining the evaluation workforce
Graduates bring fresh knowledge, critical thinking and innovative approaches to the APS. Building a pipeline of new evaluators is critical for the long-term success of the profession, and to supporting evidence informed policy development. In 2025, the Evaluation Profession teamed up with the Data Profession to create an evaluation stream within the Data Graduate Program. The profession will continue working with the Data Profession to recruit graduates with strong research, evaluation and data skills to help ensure effective evaluation across government.
The Profession will explore ways to support mid-career evaluators with advancement opportunities, such as temporary transitions between government and academic sectors. This work will be undertaken in partnership with key stakeholders and will include consultation with Evaluation Profession members.
Many agencies now have senior executive roles specifically responsible for evaluation leadership. Under changes introduced by the Australian Public Service Commission in 2023, Commonwealth agencies are required to include a specialist member on recruitment panels for SES positions aligned with an APS profession.
A recruiting agency may request an Evaluation Profession Delegate as part of a panel to support recruitment for any SES evaluation-focused role. The Evaluation Profession will help identify a suitable specialist on request to ensure these recruitment processes are well-informed and build a cohort of highly skilled evaluation leaders across the APS.
2: Developing professional evaluation skills & capabilities
The profession is committed to promoting evaluation training through the Evaluation Profession Member Community Platform. This includes training in various evaluation approaches and methods, such as, impact evaluation, and courses offered through universities and the Australian Evaluation Society. The profession will continue to highlight evaluation training modules and micro-learning videos, available on APS Learn. These resources are designed to give all APS staff a solid understanding of evaluation concepts.
The profession is also dedicated to supporting First Nations approaches to evaluation. This includes raising awareness and promoting the Productivity Commission’s Indigenous Evaluation Strategy and related resources. By working in partnership with First Nations evaluators, the National Indigenous Australians Agency and other key stakeholders, the profession will identify additional actions to support First Nations approaches to evaluation.
3: Fostering a professional evaluation workforce
Understanding the professional pathways to becoming a successful public sector evaluator is key to helping emerging evaluators progress within the APS. The Evaluation Profession will develop ‘career journeys’ for current and prospective APS staff interested in pursuing a career in evaluation. These career journeys will offer insights into the professional development (experiences and training) of Evaluation Profession members. This initiative will help individuals identify growth opportunities and potential career paths.
High quality evaluation requires a range of skills to successfully design, deliver and communicate evaluation findings. The profession will outline the skills required for specialist evaluation roles. This will help members identify the expertise required for these roles, which will be useful for recruiting and commissioning external expertise.
The profession will also develop an Evaluation Profession Employee Value Proposition to align with those being created by other APS Professions and the Australian Public Service Commission. This value proposition will highlight what working in evaluation in the APS can offer, including the attributes and benefits offered by a career in the APS.
4: Embedding an evidence and evaluation culture
The profession will focus on elevating the importance of high-quality evidence and robust evaluation across the Australian Public Service and more broadly. This includes a continued program of speeches, thought-leadership pieces and social media content that highlight why good evidence matters for better decisions.
It also involves practical capability-building through sharing case studies and hands-on sessions that demystify evaluation and show how rigorous methods can be embedded in day to day policy design. The profession will promote relevant events through the Evaluation Profession Member Community Platform targeting all APS staff.
Senior executives are crucial in fostering demand for high quality evaluation and embedding an evaluation culture. The Evaluation Profession will continue to support SES training to develop SES evaluation leaders and champions. This training will be part of the existing SES training delivered by the Data Profession, ensuring an integrated approach to monitoring, evaluation and learning. The profession will also explore opportunities to work with the APS Academy on bespoke training to meet demand.
5: Driving innovation in evaluation
The profession will continue to run forums and events, via the Member Community Platform, to give members the chance to learn and share innovative evaluation methods. This includes events during APS Innovation Month. These forums and events will focus on topics that interest the Evaluation Profession - members are encouraged to suggest ideas for event topics or series. The profession will also advertise events run by external agencies or other professions that might be of interest to Evaluation Profession members.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more common in generating new content and performing tasks to support high-quality evaluation. The profession will share examples of how the safe and ethical use of AI tools can drive innovation and assist those commissioning and delivering evaluations. This includes promoting a series of micro-learning training videos developed by the Australian Centre for Evaluation on using AI tools to support safe and ethical evaluation in the Australian Government.
Monitoring and reporting on progress
The Evaluation Profession will, through the Commonwealth Evaluation Reference Group, track progress and measure success using a combination of measures.
| Priority area | Output measure |
|---|---|
| 1. Growing and retaining the evaluation workforce | M1.1: Number of agencies seeking evaluation stream graduates M1.2: Number of graduates applying for the evaluation stream M1.3: Number of specialist recruitment panel member requests met |
| 2. Developing professional evaluation skills & capabilities | M2.1: Number of training opportunities promoted M2.2: Number of evaluation profession events on First Nations approaches to evaluation |
| 3. Fostering a professional evaluation workforce | M3.1: Number of evaluation profession members M3.2: Level of engagement on the Member Community Platform |
| 4. Embedding an evidence and evaluation culture | M4.1: Number of APS employees that agree their SES manager routinely promotes the use of data and evidence to deliver outcomes (APS Census) M4.2: Number of SES taking part in training |
| 5. Driving innovation in evaluation | M5.1: Number of evaluation profession events M5.2: Feedback on evaluation profession events |