About the Department

The role of the Department of Education is to support Victorians to build prosperous, socially engaged, happy and healthy lives. It does this by supporting lifelong learning and healthy development, strengthening families and helping to equip people with the skills and knowledge for a 21st century economy and society.

About the Division

The Employee Safety, Wellbeing and Inclusion Division (ESWI Division) vision is to create safe, healthy, respectful and inclusive working environments for Department employees to thrive and succeed.

The ESWI Division performs it functions through teams that span from prevention, through to response and recovery, along with strategy, advice and support, and diversity and inclusion. These teams adopt a holistic approach for supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce across schools, central and regional offices. This includes Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and Workers' Compensation policy advice and support, for both physical and mental health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The objectives of the ESWI Division are to:

• promote positive wellbeing in working environments
• prevent against known and expected risks to health, safety and wellbeing
• respond swiftly and effectively to manage potential issues as they emerge and prevent injuries
• support employees to recover from injury and illness, and return to work
• promote respectful and inclusive workplaces that upholds equal opportunity and prevents discrimination, bullying, harassment and sexual harassment
• promotes human rights and workforce diversity and inclusion

OHS Implementation Services Branch

The OHS Implementation Services Branch provides Victorian government schools with systems, resources and expertise to effectively manage occupational health, safety and wellbeing, with the objective of reducing administrative workload for schools by providing targeted service, support and advice.

The OHS Implementation Services Branch empowers employees through flexible work, career paths, and cross-functional learning opportunities. Our inclusive culture fosters tight-knit teams that collaborate across roles, sharing knowledge and promoting continuous development. Together, we are driven by a deep sense of purpose - delivering positive outcomes for schools while prioritising safety and caring for one another.

The Branch includes the operational Statewide OHS Services Team, the OHS Services Statewide Systems and Support Team and the eduSafe Plus Team.

The Statewide OHS Services Team is made up of four regionally based teams that provide on the ground OHS` services and support to schools, including:

• support with tasks in preparation for OHS Assurance assessments and with completion of post audit actions
• support with emergency management planning tasks
• proactive regular and risk based OHS and emergency management planning support through onsite visits
• delivery of targeted OHS initiatives
• responsive support to service requests
• support with building OHS and emergency management planning capability in school leadership

The eduSafe Plus team manage the department's consolidated digital system for reporting and managing incidents, hazards, sick bay and first aid events. This system also enables management of a schools' Occupational Health and Safety management system, OHS assurance actions and workers' compensation claims.

About the Role

The Statewide OHS Services Systems and Support team is responsible for the program management of the OHS Services Program. This team works closely with the OHS Services team to support the delivery of regular, consistent, quality, hands on service with OHS and Emergency Management tasks across the state. The team is cross-functional; from designing systems and processes, supporting capability building and monitoring and evaluating the program for continuous improvement.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Program Advisor to join the team to support and service a variety of functions, with a focus on collaboration and stakeholder management. In this role you will have the ability to contribute to meaningful outcomes by designing and continuously improving systems and processes for the OHS Services Program.

You will support the capability building of our Statewide OHS Services team by building trusting relationships, understanding stakeholder needs and driving collaborative action to achieve tangible results. Knowledge management is also a key component of this role; with responsibilities for building and maintaining centralised knowledge repositories for the program.

This role provides great opportunity for anyone with a strong sense of service and support, who is passionate about co-designing pragmatic solutions to improve the effectiveness of operational delivery. The role also requires a drive and motivation to produce quality work to achieve positive outcomes within dynamic working environments.

Key responsibilities of this role are supporting and enabling the OHS Services program, and include:

• Undertaking project management activities and supporting the delivery of systems and process to enable delivery of the program
• Establishing and maintaining effective relationships with a diverse set of stakeholders, including schools, regional and central office staff
• Driving collaboration on service design for the program, including shaping practical, user-centred solutions for various systems, tools and processes.
• Developing and presenting clear, purposeful written and verbal communications to support program implementation of programs and projects, including procedure and guidance documents, training presentations and stakeholder communications.
• Effective communication with stakeholders, including demonstrating responsiveness, influencing and conflict management skills
• Providing administrative support for programs, projects and procurement
• Use of DE digital systems, including eduSafe Plus
• Supporting the team and Branch as required.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Demonstrated experience in supporting projects or programs
• Demonstrated ability to effectively manage a diverse range of stakeholders
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to communicate to senior stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to promote a culture of collaboration and understand user needs
• Sound organisation and project management skills, including experience with Microsoft Office suite
• Aptitude with digital systems, including the ability to learn DE technology systems to support programs and projects

Desirable Qualifications and Experience

• Knowledge of, and experience working with, OHS and/or emergency management
• Relevant tertiary qualifications

This is a full-time ongoing role, based in Melbourne

A position description is attached. Candidates should provide a short cover letter (no more than 2 pages) addressing the key selection criteria, as well as a copy of their CV.

This position may involve visiting school sites during operating hours and therefore would require a Victorian Employee Working With Children Check.

Further Information

For more details on the capabilities required for this position please see attached position description.

The department values diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about our work, working for the Department, diversity and inclusion, and our employment conditions visit the Department website and our Diversity and Inclusion page

Applicants requiring adjustments can contact the nominated contact person.

Information about the Department of Education's operations and employment conditions can be located at www.education.vic.gov.au.

For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Tamara Howard, Manager via 0447 445 691 or [email protected].

Preferred applicants may be required to complete a police check and may be subject to other pre-employment checks. Information provided to the Department of Education will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Please let us know via phone or email if you require any adjustments to ensure your full participation in the recruitment process or if you need the ad or any attachments in an accessible format (e.g. large print) due to any viewing difficulties or other accessibility requirements.

Applications close 11:59pm on 15-JUL-2025.