Key Selection Criteria for Victorian Government jobs: how the VPS differs from APS and NSW

If you have written an Australian Public Service pitch or answered NSW targeted questions and now you are applying for a Victorian Public Service role, the position description will look familiar and the instructions will not. Victoria does things its own way, and the applicants who do well are the ones who notice.

This guide covers what Key Selection Criteria are in Victoria, how they differ from the Commonwealth and NSW models, and how to respond in the format each Victorian employer is actually asking for.

What Key Selection Criteria are

In Victoria the phrase is Key Selection Criteria, usually shortened to KSC in the position description. They sit in their own section, and in most departments they are grouped under headings.

A typical Victorian Public Service position description lists KSC under Knowledge and skills (stakeholder management, written communication, policy analysis, project delivery) and Personal qualities (resilience, initiative and accountability, conceptual and analytical ability). Some also list Qualifications and experience separately, naming any registration required: AHPRA for clinical roles, Victorian Institute of Teaching registration for teachers.

Each criterion is usually a short heading with a one or two sentence description underneath, and the description matters. "Stakeholder management: identifies key stakeholders and their needs, builds productive relationships, manages expectations" is telling you the three things the panel will look for. Answer all three.

How Victoria differs from the APS

The Australian Public Service assesses against a published sector-wide framework, the Integrated Leadership System (ILS), backed by Work Level Standards for each classification. You can study those documents before you apply and know in advance what an APS6 or EL1 is expected to demonstrate. Most APS roles now ask for a one to two page pitch covering all the capabilities together, and successful applicants often land in a merit pool for later vacancies. Our APS pitch guide covers that model.

Victoria has no single sector-wide list to study in advance. The KSC are written into each position description by the department or agency, so two VPS Grade 4 roles in different departments can have quite different criteria. What is consistent is the public sector values in the Public Administration Act 2004: responsiveness, integrity, impartiality, accountability, respect, leadership and human rights. Departments regularly ask you to show one or more of these, and interviews often include a values question.

The classification structure is different too. VPS roles run from Grade 1 to Grade 7, with Senior Technical Specialist and executive bands above. The grade tells you the level of autonomy and judgement expected, and your examples should match it. A Grade 5 application full of examples where someone else made every decision will struggle.

How Victoria differs from NSW

NSW Government roles are assessed against the NSW Public Sector Capability Framework, with focus capabilities named in the role description and usually one or two targeted questions in the application. The framework is public and structured, and the NSW focus capabilities guide shows how to write to it.

Victoria does not use targeted questions as a standard model. The equivalent step is either a written response to the KSC or, increasingly, no written response at all beyond a cover letter and resume, with the KSC assessed at interview and through work sample tests or assessments. Which one you get depends entirely on the ad.

The three instruction patterns you will see

Read the "how to apply" section closely. Victorian ads fall into three groups and each wants something different.

"Applicants are required to address the Key Selection Criteria." The traditional model. You submit a separate document with each criterion as a heading, in the order given, and a Situation, Task, Action, Result example under each. Roughly 250 to 350 words per criterion unless the ad states a limit. Some ads cap the whole document at two or three pages, in which case divide it up and keep the Action sections tight.

This is still standard for Victorian government school teaching roles, where the criteria are set out as SC1 to SC5 and applications go through the Department of Education's Recruitment Online system. Teachers should write to all five, with concrete classroom evidence for each.

"Applicants are not required to address the Key Selection Criteria" or "Please submit a cover letter and resume." Now common across many VPS departments and agencies advertising on careers.vic.gov.au. Do not send a criteria document anyway; it signals you did not read the instructions. Instead, treat the cover letter as your evidence document. One to two pages, and for each of the most important KSC give a short paragraph with a real example and a result. The panel will still score you against the KSC; they have moved the assessment to interview and made the letter the shortlisting tool.

"In your cover letter, please address the Key Selection Criteria." A hybrid. Write a brief opening paragraph, then use the KSC as subheadings within the letter with a compact example under each. It should read as a letter, not a form, but every criterion needs to be visibly answered.

What Victorian panels look for

The mechanics are the same as anywhere in Australia: claim, evidence, result, in the panel's language. A few points carry extra weight in Victoria.

Personal qualities need examples too. Applicants often write proper STAR responses for the skills criteria and then a paragraph of adjectives for resilience or initiative. Panels score those criteria the same way. Pick a time you kept going through a difficult period or started something nobody asked you to, and tell it as a story.

Values are assessed, not assumed. If a criterion or an interview question mentions the public sector values, name the value and show the behaviour. Impartiality is a time you gave frank advice that the person asking did not want to hear.

Interviews and work tests do a lot of the work. Because Victorian shortlisting is often lighter on written criteria, the interview and any written exercise carry more of the decision. Prepare your STAR examples even if you did not have to write them down. Our behavioural interview guide covers that side.

Local government is different again. Victorian councils generally still ask for a full written KSC response. See applying for council jobs in Australia.

A quick Victorian checklist

• Have you found the KSC section and read the description under each heading, not just the heading?
• Does the ad ask for a separate criteria document, a cover letter that addresses the KSC, or a cover letter and resume only?
• Does every KSC, including the personal qualities, have a specific example with a result?
• Do your examples show the level of judgement expected at the advertised grade?
• Have you got an example ready for at least one of the public sector values?

If you are writing a full KSC response, CVelo's free selection criteria checker reads the exact criteria from the position description and checks each answer against every part of the wording, including the description underneath the heading. No account needed. It will show you where an answer is describing rather than demonstrating before a Victorian panel does.

For the fundamentals that apply in every state, start with how to address selection criteria in an Australian job application.