Top 4 Defence RPL Qualifications
Transition is a word you hear a lot during your military career. You go to the career transition seminars, you talk to your mates about it. But the thought of leaving Defence and building a new career as a civilian can be pretty daunting.
How will a new employer understand your service?
How do you express it in terms of civilian awards?
Which qualifications are best on your resume?
That’s where Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) comes in.
Show Employers the Value of your Defence Experience.
RPL converts your experience to qualifications civilian employers can understand and appreciate. But you need to make sure you have qualifications on your resume that mean the most to employers.
We have been helping military personnel transition since 2006, which means we understand the value of your experience and what employers are looking for.
Ideally employers want to see that you have a spread of business technical and specialist skills (relevant to the role you are applying for)
Following are the top 4 qualifications that are helping our Defence RPL customers to build careers in the private, government, mining and training sectors…
Top 4 Qualifications for Defence
The BSB50420 Diploma of Leadership and Management shows employers that you have business skills.It demonstrates that you can combine the two vital aspects of management: effective team leadership and organisational planning for success. Employers are looking for the strengths in their organisations that come from your skills in order and leadership.This leadership/management qualification focuses on your ability to head up a team. It demonstrates that you have skills and knowledge in both human resources and management operations and can balance the need for business growth with the tasks of managing employees and their performance. It is also a qualification that has credibility in both the public and private sectors.
Possible career outcomes:
- Project Manager / Supervisor
- Operations Manager
- Business Manager
- Production Supervisor
- Health and Safety Manager
- Workplace health and safety (WHS) is a fundamental consideration in modern organisations and shows employers that you have technical skills.Professionals in this field are always required because workplaces must comply to relevant legislation – in both the private and public sector. Pay scale trends show that WHS roles are often at the higher end of the pay spectrum. This qualification assures employers for jobs that require the coordination and maintenance of WHS programs in their organisation, that you are already experienced and knowledgeable in these areas, with a comprehensive understanding of WHS and its applications.You can see by the sorts of roles that lead to WHS positions that there is often a link to managing WHS outcomes, so combining a work health safety qualification with leadership/management makes sense.
Possible career outcomes:
- Work Health and Safety / OHS Officer (WHSO)
- WHS/HSE Advisor
- Work Health and Safety Manager
- Maintenance Coordinator
The CPP50619 Diploma of Security Risk Management is the highest qualification in this sector and gives employers evidence of specialist skills.With this one under your belt, you can demonstrate to employers that you have substantial experience acting at a leadership level in higher risk security environments, conducting comprehensive security assessments and developing high level emergency management response planning.This is an ideal qualification for those personnel who want to transfer their experience into a security and risk management focused role. At the Diploma level, you have experience in leading a team in this environment and you’ll be looking at jobs that have leadership responsibilities.
Possible career outcomes:
- International High-Risk Security Consultant
- Offshore and Domestic Security and Risk Advisor
- Personal Security Detail (PSD) Team Leader
- Protective Services Officer
The PSP40116 Certificate IV in Government is another specialist skills qualification.It is an ideal qualification for those looking to secure a sought-after entry-level position in government or the public sector. (And remember, you may have the skills to justify the award of a Diploma qualification.) The Certificate IV qualification is often listed on job advertisements for AO5 positions in government.Getting a good balance on your resume of qualifications to speak to the private sector and public sector also keeps your options open as you make decisions about your next career step. This Government qualification validates your advanced communication strategies, capacity to work within an established framework, your ability to maintain effective workplace relationships, skill in autonomous self-management and monitoring and improving service delivery to clients. It tells public sector employees looking at your application that you know how to work effectively within the government sector.
At this level, you may have some supervisor responsibilities of a handful of employees and you will be expected to manage your own work responsibilities with limited supervision yourself.
Possible career outcomes:
- Protective Services Officer
- Local Laws Officer
- Field Officer
- Compliance Officer
- Regulatory Team Leader
- Administrative Services Officer
- Senior Records Officer
Other useful specialist skills qualifications include TLI50415 Diploma of Logistics and BSB50820 Diploma of Project Management.
