To be eligible for the 2026 NSW Government Graduate Program, you must:

at the time of submitting your application, hold a current visa permitting you to work full-time in Australia* for the 18-month duration of the program until 8 August 2027.
complete your undergraduate or postgraduate degree between 1 June 2023 and 31 December 2025**
be available to start full-time work on 2 February 2026.

*Having the right to work in Australia under the Government Sector Employment legislative framework means that you must be:

an Australian citizen, or
a permanent resident of Australia, or
a New Zealand citizen with a current New Zealand passport, or
a citizen of another country with a current visa that allows you to work continuously in Australia until at least 8 August 2027.

**Completion dates: The eligible dates are based on your degree completion date as confirmed by your university or in your university transcript. This is not your degree conferral date or graduation ceremony date. You must complete all components of the degree, including any work placement requirements.

Proof of eligibility

Citizenship or residency

You must provide evidence of your current eligibility to work full-time to be eligible for a place in the NSW Government Graduate Program. Depending on your citizenship, residency or visa status, you may need to provide one or more of the following documents:

Qualification

You will need to demonstrate that you have fully completed an eligible degree or will complete an eligible degree by 31 December 2025. Eligible degrees are those rated by the Australian Qualifications Framework as being level 7 and above.

In addition, to be eligible for the legal, digital, social work, or engineering streams you must also meet some stream-specific requirements as detailed in the sections below.

To be eligible for the legal stream, you must:

hold a law degree
be willing to study a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (GDLP) during the program. If you have started studying a GDLP, you are ineligible for the legal stream.
agree to pay up to $4,000 of the GDLP fees, with FEE-HELP options available.

To be eligible for the digital stream, your degree must be an information technology or related degree

Disciplines we are looking for relate to information technology, IT architecture, cyber security, web development, applications development, computer science, data analytics, data science, software engineering, software development and programming, systems analysis and design, and programming.

To be eligible for the social work stream, you must:

hold a degree in social work (preferred), psychology or social science welfare
have a current driver licence
hold a current Working with Children Check clearance

To be eligible for the engineering stream, you must hold a relevant engineering degree.

Disciplines we are looking for relate to civil engineering, environmental engineering, mining and resources, mechanical engineering, construction management, building construction, and project management.

Primary Stream

Digital Stream

Legal Stream

Engineering Stream

Social Work Stream