Our Criminal Intelligence Training and Development Continuum (CITDC) continued to mature and expand in 2018–19. The CITDC provides a structured learning pathway for our staff in intelligence collection and analytical roles. Composed of various sequential, interrelated training programs and learning modules, the CITDC continues to develop a high-performing criminal intelligence workforce.

A key element of the CITDC is the Criminal Intelligence Development Program, run in partnership with the Australian Federal Police. The program is our agency’s foundational course, leading to a formal qualification for our staff—a Diploma of Police Intelligence Practice. It introduces the concepts underpinning the intelligence cycle in the context of criminal intelligence and provides practical skills which are directly transferrable to the workplace.

This year, for the first time, places in a number of our intelligence programs were offered to our Commonwealth and state and territory partners. Participants from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Department of Home Affairs, Tasmania Police, Northern Territory Police, the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Western Australia Police completed programs within the CITDC. Importantly, the expansion of our training programs has fostered common understanding among agencies and interoperability at an operational level.

We received positive feedback from our partner training participants and there has been a surge of interest in placement on the course among other partners, including our international partners.

Although our agency has recently undergone a period of change through workforce planning initiatives, our 2019 Australian Public Service Commission Census results show that we have maintained positive levels of staff engagement, particularly in relation to specialist training and capability development.

This mirrors the positive feedback that we have received from our program participants, in particular about the clear learning and career progression pathways that the program gives staff in our Intelligence Operations and Capability divisions.

These programs are particularly important now that we have formally joined Australia’s National Intelligence Community and as we strengthen our relationships with our international Five Eyes partner agencies. We now have a common benchmark for intelligence training so that our partners have a clear idea of what to expect from our staff.