Police Occupational Pathways
Project Timeline
March 2026 – December 2026
Overview
The Police Occupational Pathways Project was established in response to the Public Skills Australia 2025 Public Safety Workforce Insights Report.
The report identified increased pressures on police workforce sustainability and emphasised the need to better understand the drivers of police specialist occupation shortages.
The term “specialist occupations” refers to policing roles that focus on a specific area of law enforcement requiring advanced training beyond a general duties police officer, such as forensics, crash investigations or bomb technical response.
To address workforce pipeline challenges associated with specialist occupations, Public Skills Australia is collaborating with Australian policing agencies and the Australian New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency to:
- Identify drivers that may be limiting specialist occupation capacity across policing agencies.
- Design innovative pathways that recognise employees existing skills to increase employee transferability into specialist occupations.
- Provide policing agencies with insights into the common skills across policing to support pathways between specialist occupations.
- Determine how the Vocation Education and Training (VET) system could support efforts to address shortages in specialist occupations.
- Provide recommendations (if relevant) to streamline training package products to increase inter-industry skills transferability.
Consultation
Mar 2026 - May 2026Public Skills Australia held online consultations in March 2026 with all Australian policing agencies. These consultations examined how policing agencies manage training for their specialist occupations and identified associated workforce challenges.
In-person consultations will be conducted with all policing agencies and unions in May 2026 to support the development of enhanced training pathways into and between specialist occupations.
Research and Analysis
Live nowJun 2026 - Aug 2026The Project will analyse the POL Police Training Package for the 21 VET qualifications that align with specialist occupations to:
- Identify common skills
- Determine the extent to which those skills overlap across qualifications
- Map patterns of capability transfer
Finalisation
Sept 2026 - Dec 2026On completion of the Project, a Pathways Documentation product will be developed to support policing agencies:
Understand which specialist occupations have the greatest overlap of skills.
This will assist in guiding career pathways for personnel seeking to transition between specialist occupations and enable stronger transfer of capability.
Identify elements and performance criteria across the 21 VET qualifications that have a high degree of similarity.
This will allow training for one qualification to be designed and delivered in a way that also satisfies the requirements of other related qualifications.
Recommend new training products to upskill personnel across multiple specialist occupations.
This will support policing agencies to increase workforce mobility.
Project Timeline