Selection criteria for NSW Health, Queensland Health and state teaching roles
State health and education are two of the largest employers in Australia, and between them they run some of the most rule bound recruitment in the country. A nurse or a teacher who understands the format has a real advantage over one who does not, because a great many strong applicants never learn it.
The principles from addressing selection criteria all apply. What follows is what is specific to these sectors.
Health: the criteria are usually in the ad, and they are strict
NSW Health advertises through its own recruitment system and typically asks you to answer two targeted questions at the point of application, on top of the essential requirements listed in the position description. Queensland Health commonly asks for a short response against the key capabilities, often capped at one or two pages. Victorian health services vary more by service, so read each ad on its own terms.
Three things are close to universal.
Essential requirements are gates, not preferences. If the ad lists current AHPRA registration, a National Police Check, a Working with Children Check, immunisation category A compliance or an unrestricted driver licence, these are screened before anything else is read. Being unable to demonstrate one usually ends the application regardless of clinical strength.
State your registration explicitly, with the number. Do not leave AHPRA registration to be inferred from your qualification. Write it out, include the registration number, and note the expiry. Recruitment systems screen for it directly, and a human checking forty applications will not go hunting.
Immunisation and screening categories matter. Category A roles involve direct clinical contact and carry vaccination evidence requirements. If you already hold current documentation, say so in the application rather than waiting to be asked.
What health panels are actually scoring
Beyond the credentials, health criteria cluster around a predictable set of themes. Patient safety and escalation. Working within a multidisciplinary team. Communication with patients and families, including difficult conversations. Clinical documentation. Person centred care. Cultural safety, particularly in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.
That last one is often listed and very often answered badly. A response that says you treat everyone equally scores poorly, because it misses the point of the criterion. What panels are looking for is evidence that you recognise different needs and adjust your practice, not that you are unaware of difference.
Weak:
I treat all patients the same regardless of background and always provide a high standard of care to everyone.
Strong:
When an Aboriginal patient on our ward was reluctant to consent to a procedure, I recognised the discussion was happening in a way that did not suit him. I paused the conversation, asked whether he would like a family member present, and contacted the Aboriginal Liaison Officer before continuing. He asked for his sister to attend, and consent was given the following morning after a discussion he was comfortable with. I now involve the liaison service at the point of admission rather than at the point of difficulty.
One is a statement of good intentions. The other is scoreable practice.
Teaching: the criteria follow the standards
State education departments recruit against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Criteria are usually written in the language of the standards, and the strongest applications answer in that language too.
Expect to be assessed on knowing students and how they learn, planning and assessing for effective learning, creating safe and supportive environments, engaging professionally with colleagues and parents, and demonstrating evidence based practice.
The non negotiables. Current teacher accreditation or registration with your state authority, NESA in New South Wales, VIT in Victoria, QCT in Queensland, TRB in South Australia and so on. A current Working with Children Check with its number and expiry. These belong near the top of the resume and stated plainly in the application.
Show data. Teaching applications reward evidence far more than most applicants expect. Not "I improved literacy outcomes" but what you measured, over what period, and what moved. A running record improvement across a term, a NAPLAN band shift, an attendance change in a targeted group. Panels see a great deal of enthusiasm and very little measurement, and the applications with measurement stand out immediately.
Differentiation is almost always assessed. Have a specific example ready of adjusting your teaching for a student with an identified need, including the adjustment you made and what changed for that student.
Rural, remote and hard to fill roles
Both sectors run incentives for locations they struggle to staff. Relocation support, additional leave, salary loadings, subsidised accommodation, and in teaching, transfer points that improve your position for later moves.
If you are willing to work rurally, say so explicitly and early. Willingness to relocate is genuinely valued and frequently unstated, and the competition for those roles is a fraction of what it is in metropolitan areas. For a nurse or teacher trying to get a first permanent position, this is often the shortest route in.
The resume still has to be findable
Both sectors use recruitment software, and both parse your resume into it. The credential terms are what matter most here. AHPRA, NESA, VIT, QCT, Working with Children Check, National Police Check, immunisation category, plus the clinical or curriculum vocabulary from the ad itself.
You can score your resume against the ad for free, no account needed, and see which of those terms the ad wants that your resume does not contain. Our role specific guides cover the details for registered nurses, enrolled nurses, primary school teachers and early childhood educators.
A short checklist before you submit
Registration or accreditation stated with the number and the expiry date. Working with Children Check included where required. Every essential requirement addressed somewhere explicit rather than implied. Each criterion answered with a specific example and a measurable result. Recent examples, ideally within five years. Written in first person, saying I rather than we. Within the word or page limit.
Miss the first three and the rest never gets read.
For Commonwealth roles, the format is different again and is covered in the APS pitch guide.
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Keep reading
10 selection criteria examples, with model answers you can adapt
The ten criteria that turn up in almost every Australian government, health and education job, each answered in full, with a note on what the panel is actually scoring.
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